Stuart Bannigan insists Partick Thistle could easily have five wins from five in Scottish Championship but is satisfied with start to season

Stuart Bannigan accepts Partick Thistle could easily have a return of five wins from their opening five Scottish Championship fixtures but insists he has been satisfied with their start to the campaign.

The Jags have registered nine points from a possible 15 to date and sit fourth in the table, with the experienced midfielder urging his team-mates to build on their early-season tally.

Ian McCall’s side host second-placed Kilmarnock at Firhill Stadium tomorrow in what will be the first meeting between the sides in over four years.

Thistle stalwart Bannigan, who turns 29 today, insists his ideal birthday present would be three points against the Ayrshire outfit.

He said: “It will be an intense game, two big clubs at the top end of the table and I’m sure they’ll bring a big crowd to Firhill.

“We need to put on a better performance than we did against Inverness last weekend, so the boys will be going all out to get that win on Saturday.

“I didn’t think any team in this league would’ve won all of their games so far, but Inverness have done really well to achieve that.

“I know it’s a cliché but every team in the Championship will take points off each other.

“It’s important for us to try and maintain our good start. We’ve had three wins out of five and find ourselves in the mix of things, but our start is tinged with a bit of disappointment with the two games we’ve lost because we we’re 1-0 up in both of them.

“Over the past couple of years, we’ve started the season poorly and you’re left chasing your tail as a result.

“We were lucky towards the end of last season to go on that unbeaten as other teams fell away but we might not get that luxury in this league.”

Thistle’s last win against Kilmarnock came in May 2016, with Bannigan the sole survivor of that Jags squad.

Now in his 12^th season at Firhill, he reckons that will have no impact on Saturday’s game.

He added: “We haven’t played Kilmarnock much over the past few years because we’ve been in different leagues but the last few times we’ve played them we got beat so we’ll look to try and right that wrong.

“There’s been a big change in players here and Kilmarnock have a fresh new look about their squad as well, so I don’t think many people will be paying close attention to the fact we haven’t beaten them in five years.

“It’s a huge game for us on the back of a disappointing result last weekend, so we’ll be looking to get back on track like we did earlier in the season.

“We lost to Arbroath but responded pretty well at home against Morton next time. We want to make Firhill a hard place for teams to come and get a result.

“We’ve had two wins from our first two home games, so we’ll looking to make that three on Saturday.”

The Jags have scored the majority of their goals from set-pieces this term and Bannigan believes that is down to the hard work his team-mates are putting in on the training pitch.

He stated: “I think it certainly helps (scoring from set-pieces). They’re such a big part of the game. It can deflate the opposition and can lift you so that’s been a big factor in our start.

“We can’t keep relying on guys like Brian (Graham), Zak (Rudden) and Scott (Tiffoney) to get all the goals, they need to be spread about a bit more.

“Over the last three or four years we haven’t scored many from set-pieces but this season that’s already four or five in the league we’ve scored straight from.

“It’s something we do like to work on quite a lot in training, so it’s good to see that practice paying off. We’re happy with the way things are going.”