Monday 15th October, 2018 at 11:01am
After battling back from injury to take his place in the Thistle line up again in recent weeks Stuart Bannigan topped it all off by leading the team out as captain for the first time against Dundee United.
The midfielder who has come through the Academy before making his mark on the first team was proud to have worn the arm band despite the result.
Speaking to ptfc.co.uk he said: “It was a proud moment for me. I didn’t think it would ever happen if I’m honest. I’ve come through from the under 17s all the way up so it was a real honour to lead the team out.
“There is probably going to be a new manager next week and who knows what will happen, it will probably only be for the week but it was a special moment for me today and I was incredibly proud to do it.”
Stuart spent a long time out injured and it was a tough road back, but he is delighted at where he is at right now.
“I’m delighted where I am right now after everything that has happened. After all the disappointments I’ve had in recent years I’m grateful to be out there playing again and to get the nod to be captain today was just a great way to top that off and I’m over the moon with that.”
Bannigan made an error for the second goal and was quick to hold his hands up and he knows what he needs to work on
“I’m disappointed with myself for the second goal. I always try and show for the ball and I’ve maybe got a little slackness in my game and I need to work on that and do better but I’ll always work as hard as possible and make sure I’m always available for the ball.”
“We’re disappointed with the result; I think we left it far too late to play and didn’t do enough in the first part of the game.
“I think we sat off them too much and showed them too much respect but we showed character towards the end to keep battling and we could have maybe nicked a point towards the end but it wasn’t to be.”
After change at the Club this week the Thistle number eight feels there is positives to take from the game as we go into the rest of the season
“We’ve got some good players, we know that. We tried to go a bit different today and maybe it took us a while to get used to that in the first half. We changed it in the second half and it helped. Jai Quitongo came on and you saw what he’s got, he was a real focal point for us, he was causing the defenders problems and got his goal.
“We will take positives from the last half hour but it’s another defeat at home and we are really disappointed in that.
“We showed a lot of fight towards the end and that was pleasing, we spoke about it after and we need to look at why we didn’t play like that during the whole match, but we’ll work on that and try and take that into next week.”
Banzo was quick to praise the fans for their backing in what has been a tough week for everyone connected with the club
“The fans got behind us and that was great, they drove us on and they help build the tempo and we really appreciate that backing.
“We’ve got to work hard this week and look forward to the Alloa game, obviously things might change this week with a new manager but as players we just have to make sure we work as hard as possible and look forward to the game next week.“
With the Club currently undertaking a change, we want to keep all Thistle supporters up to date. That’s why, for this weekend’s match against Dundee United, all preview and reaction videos will be free to view for every Jags fan.
Watch the reaction interviews with Andrew McCarthy, Jai Quitongo and Scott Allison free to view.
Jagzone subscribers will also be able to watch extended highlights of the game.
For a full list of all the great content you can access from just £5.99 per month as a Jagzone member, click here.
Article Copyright © 2018. Permission to use quotations from this article online is only granted subject to appropriate source credit and hyperlink to ptfc.co.uk.
