Lee Hodson determined to pay back Partick Thistle by earning promotion after Jags Foundation fund loan deal extension

Lee Hodson is determined to repay the faith shown to him by Partick Thistle with promotion to the top-flight - after the Maryhill club stumped up the funds to extend his loan spell until the end of the season.

The 31-year-old, who was loaned out by Scottish Premiership side Kilmarnock in the summer, expressed his delight at continuing his temporary spell with Ian McCall’s side after the Jags Foundation donated a sum of money to the Thistle boss to help accelerate transfer business at the beginning of the January window.

McCall confirmed the “vast majority” of the cash went towards tying Hodson down on a deal and declared he would be open to keeping the versatile defender on a permanent basis if an opportunity to do so arose in the summer.

Hodson is bidding for back-to-back promotions this season after helping Killie return to the Premiership last term and he is relishing the prospect of another title battle.

“I’m excited,” Hodson admitted. “I’ve really enjoyed my six months here and it’s a great bunch of lads. It’s a great football club so when I heard there was an option to stay on until the end of the season I was more than happy to sign on the dotted line.

“You want to do as well as you can in that first six months and hopefully the club will want to extend it. It was always in the back of my mind that that was an option. We had that conversation and I was delighted to get it done.

“When I heard it was the Foundation that contributed towards the loan, I was just thankful that they allowed me to stay at their club and hopefully, come the end of the season we’ll have a great outcome. I’ll give my all for the club and I’m very grateful to the Foundation for giving the club the money.

“One of the reasons I signed is because it is a club with ambition. There is a very good squad in place and as a player you want to try and get as many promotions and things like that for your CV as you can. So for me I’d love to be able to say I’d won back-to-back promotions.

“You can never get too far ahead of yourself, though. You have to take it game by game. Everyone dreams and everyone has something in the back of their mind that they would like to achieve. Hopefully we can achieve that but there’s a lot of football still to be played”.

Asked if he’d had any thoughts about staying at the Firhill club beyond the summer, the Nothern Ireland international stated: “If the option was there then it’s something I would be interesting in, but right now that is at the back of my mind. It’s five or six months away so it’s something I’m not really thinking about. I’m just concentrating on what we have got ahead of us right now. That’s more important than my contract situation.

“These next 14 games are massive and they are more important. It’s about us trying to get this club back to where it belongs. If it was an option come the end of the season then it’s definitely something that I would consider but right now it’s not at the top of my thoughts.”

Thistle host Championship basement boys Hamilton Accies in Glasgow’s West End this afternoon - one of Hodson’s former clubs. He is looking forward to catching up with a few familiar faces today.

Hodson added: “There are some great people there. Dylan McGowan has just signed for them a couple of weeks back and I know him from Kilmarnock. He has gone in straight as captain. I speak to a few people there still but Dylan is probably the one I know best. He’ll probably try and have a bit of banter with me during the game. He’s a great lad. I don’t think there will be any texts going back and forth to try and wind each other up!

Reflecting on his season-long loan stint in South Lanarkshire, Hodson said: “It was disappointing that we did get relegated, you don’t want to go on loan to a club and get relegated. But there were many positives and it was a good club to be at. They made me feel welcome.

“It was just the football side of it where we didn’t quite get over the line, which as a player is disappointing. If you speak to anyone who has been relegated, it hurts and it’s not nice. You feel down and wish you could have done things differently. It’s football and you have to try and move on from those disappointments and learn from them.”