Bannigan: We’ll be giving it all we’ve got

Friday 11th February, 2022 at 1:36pm

Partick Thistle’s Scottish Cup campaign continues this Saturday as they take on Dundee United at Firhill with a spot in the quarter-finals on the line. The Jags overcame Airdrieonians in the last round despite playing 40 minutes with 10 men while the Tangerines fought past Kilmarnock in extra-time to secure their place in the fifth round. Now, the two teams face off in Maryhill to see who’ll make their way into the last eight and Thistle midfielder Stuart Bannigan spoke to ptfc.co.uk ahead of the tie:

“It should be a great atmosphere inside the stadium. It’ll be two teams looking to get into a quarter-final and we’ll certainly be giving it all we’ve got to get there.

“We know it’s going to be a tough game against a team from the Premiership who had a good result the other night against Motherwell so we know we’re likely going to be up against it at times. Still, we have every confidence in ourselves that we can go out and give them a good game.”

Thistle come into the game off the back of a 3-3 draw against Inverness in midweek during which they conceded an injury time equaliser and Bannigan says that one still hurts two days later.

“We’re still gutted, to be honest. It was a cracking game that went back and forth. I don’t think we were brilliant and completely deserved to win but when you’ve led the game three times, it’s very disappointing if you don’t see it out.

“You feel like you’ve done all the hard work in the 90th minute but we need to defend our box better than that and we were really disappointed on the way down the road. It’s maybe not the worst point away from home against a team who are up near the top with us but we can’t help but look at it as two points dropped.”

Now, facing top flight Dundee United in the Scottish Cup Stuart says that the team have to believe in themselves if they’re going to cause an upset.

“We know we’re a good team and we can give them a game, no doubt about it. We played them away from home in the Scottish Cup last year in pretty different circumstances with no crowd which might have affected the game but we took them right to the end and arguably deserved to win that game so that gives us confidence ahead of this game.”

The home advantage was evident as Thistle beat Airdrieonians in the fourth round last month with the Firhill crowd singing loudly to help get their team over the line and Bannigan reckons that could be a telling factor again.

“The fans were a big help in that Airdrie game and we’ll need them to stick with us again for this one. It’s not going to be easy out there with the conditions but we’ve adapted quite well to it in recent weeks which might give us a slight edge against them. Either way, cup ties are always very exciting and hopefully we see a good crowd for the game.”

Exclusive video interviews with Ross Docherty and Thistle assistant manager Neil Scally will be available for JagZone subscribers to watch today – log in to view.

JagZone subscribers will be able to tune in to live audio commentary for our clash with Dundee United, starting at 2:30pm – click here to tune in.

We will be providing a pay-per-view option, priced at £12, for any supporter who wishes to watch our livestream of the match – click here for more info.

We’ll have extended highlights and a full game replay of the fixture on JagZone following the game.