Stuart Bannigan admits he is pleased to have picked up a third consecutive McCrea’s Financial Services player of the month award at Firhill – but the long-serving midfielder would happily trade it for better results on the park.

The 32-year-old has been a consistent performer in the heart of the Partick Thistle midfield over the past few months, but the same cannot be said for the team as a whole.

January began with a 4-1 hammering at home to Dunfermline and concluded with a 2-1 defeat at Somerset Park last weekend, with the two losses bookending a 2-1 away win over Hamilton.

Bannigan won the club’s player of the month award, as voted by supporters, in November and December after years of rarely earning the recognition – but he concedes that recent results have taken some of the shine off of it.

“A few of the boys are slagging me about it!” Bannigan said of his latest award. “I am happy with how I am playing but January wasn’t a great month for us in terms of results.

“So it’s the old cliche - I would swap it for better results. Fingers crossed, I can keep it going and we can also pick up wins.”

He continued: “I am not sure about that [being back to my best]. That’s for other people to decide. But I have been pretty consistent throughout my career. I haven’t had many dips.

“There have been bad games but you need to be consistent as a midfielder. Since being back in the team from October onwards, I have been playing pretty well and I want to keep that going.”

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Bannigan is reluctant to suggest that he is back to something approaching his best. Some players turn to yoga in their twilight years in a bid to prolong their careers and ensure they age like a fine wine, but Bannigan is not among them.

“We tried yoga a couple of times at the club this year but I am not very good at it,” he laughed. “I was a bit stiff!

“I like to train as much as I can. I don’t like taking days off. I know sometimes you need to tailor your training when there are three games in a week, but in general I like to stay as fit as I can.

“Fingers crossed, all going well, I feel I have a few good years left in the tank.”

Bannigan might well be approaching the peak of his career but elsewhere in the Thistle midfield, there is another who is just starting out: Ben Stanway.

The 20-year-old, a product of the club’s youth set-up, came off the bench to devastating effect against Accies last month, curling in a superb goal from distance to seal a come-from-behind victory for Kris Doolan’s men.

As a senior member of the squad, Bannigan provides an experienced older head to talk Stanway through matches – and he is convinced his team-mate has a big career ahead of him.

“Ben has a great mentality and an unbelievable attitude,” Bannigan explained. “He has had injury problems this year but he’s been brilliant since coming back and is dying to get in the team.

“He will probably look up to me in terms of playing plenty of games for this club. But I am sure he will go on to have a great career as he has a great attitude, as well as ability.

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“He scored a great goal against Hamilton recently and he can shoot off both feet from distance. It was a great strike and I fancied him to hit the net.”

And just as Bannigan serves as a role model for Stanway, there was another Jag that guided Bannigan through his first steps into the professional game as a fresh-faced youngster all those years ago.

“I was actually speaking to Ben about this recently,” Bannigan recalled. “He had asked me who helped me and I always looked up to David Rowson.

“He played hundreds of games for Thistle and Aberdeen, and was the guy I wanted to be like.

“He was one you could always rely on. He was there every week, always fit and played in the middle of the park too. He would be one that I really looked up to.”

Back in the here and now, Thistle face another crunch fixture in their bid for promotion. Greenock Morton come to Maryhill this afternoon, a little over a month since securing a 2-1 win over the Jags at Cappielow, and Bannigan accepts that three points against Dougie Imrie’s men is a must if the Jags are to claw themselves back into the title race.

“It’s a big game for us,” Bannigan added. “We haven’t been in great form and we need to get results going.

“It’s not all doom and gloom. We are sitting in the play-off positions and it’s not exactly a nightmare season.

“Yes, we are disappointed with where we are but if we can go on a good run, especially when teams are taking points off each other, we might end up catching a few teams above us.

“We need a result on Saturday. Dunfermline was the last game at home and we were really poor. That was out of character for us at Firhill and we want to come roaring back against Morton.”