IT wasn’t so long ago that Stuart Bannigan couldn’t help but notice that for all his years of distinguished service in the heart of Partick Thistle’s midfield, personal awards remained a rarity. But now the tough-tackling midfielder is needing to clear some extra space on his mantlepiece.

Bannigan was voted by supporters as the McCrea Financial Services Player of the Month for December – the midfielder’s second award in as many months – with the 32-year-old back to his best in Kris Doolan’s team, providing a steady, metronomic presence in the middle.

“I've been in pretty decent form the last couple of months so I'm happy to get that award,” Bannigan said. “I had a wee laugh last time speaking to the [press], they were saying I hadn't had many so two in a row is pretty funny.”

Stuart Bannigan was voted by supporters as the McCrea Financial Services Player of the Month for December (Image: Craig Watson - Partick Thistle) The Jags’ most recent results, however, are no laughing matter. It was only a fortnight ago that supporters were dreaming of pushing for the title, but back-to-back defeats to Greenock Morton and Dunfermline have brought fans crashing back down to reality.

Last weekends’ 4-1 loss to the Pars, in particular, was a sobering one. Bannigan and his team-mates performed a post-mortem on Monday morning to pinpoint where it all went wrong – and the long-serving midfielder admits there was plenty to discuss.

“We had a good long chat, all the boys and the staff,” Bannigan explained. “You can take getting beat in games. We got beat in the Morton game and you'd say it was a pretty even game. It could have been either way, and both teams were pushing for it. They got a win in the last minute, which was a sore one but you can take that.

“But it was the performance level against Dunfermline - just flat, all afternoon. They deserved the win, and probably could have scored a few more if we're being honest with ourselves.

“A few home truths were told on the Monday morning but we need to remember as well, we've not been beaten in many games in the last 15-16 games. So we need to get our head right back on it and push for Friday night.

“I’ve played football long enough to know that these things can crop up from time to time. It's not nice when it's happening but it does happen. Like somebody said as well, we hadn't been beaten in the league at home for over a year or something like that. It's not a recurring thing and it's not something that gets labelled at us a lot, but that was a really poor performance.

“We kind of got out-fought and certainly out-played in the 90 minutes. We've got no complaints with the result. We had to dust ourselves down this weekend in training.”

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• Kris Doolan furious with Thistle players after 'worst performance' of his reign

The two losses have severely damaged any lingering title aspirations at Firhill, with Doolan’s men now 10 points behind league leaders Falkirk, who also have a game in hand.

For now, Bannigan says, all title talk must be put on hold. A dose of realism is required, and the players’ focus must be on the short-term goal of getting points on the board – starting tonight away to Hamilton.

“I don't think you can sit and aim for the title when you're wherever we are behind,” Bannigan reasoned. “I think you just need to take it one place at a time, a few results at a time, and see where we are from there.

“If we're a bit closer in a couple of months' time you can maybe start talking about that. But we've fallen away the last couple of games and dropping away from that. I don't think you can sit and say we're pushing for the title realistically when you look at the league table and we're 10 or 13 points behind, whatever it is.

“We need to put our foot down with our results in the next month or two, and then we'll reassess it from there.

“Of course [we need to show a response against Hamilton] because we've lost two in a row now. We need to try and keep away from the teams below us in terms of trying to catch us for the play-off positions, and try and get closer to a couple of the teams above us.

“We can't go on losing runs if you want to have a successful season. We need to try and get three points on the board on Friday night, and try and get on another run again.”