Tomas Cerny says he is grateful to everyone at Partick Thistle for helping him to settle in and show the kind of form that led to him being named the McCrea Financial Services player of the year.

Cerny was given a chance at Firhill after being discarded by Championship side Hibernian, and like most things that have come his way in the past year, he has grasped it with both hands.

In typically modest fashion, he puts his fine form over the season down to the influence and support of others, and hopes he has repaid the faith that the club and manager Alan Archibald has shown in him.

He said: “I want to say thank you to the gaffer and Scott Paterson, as well as Ian Maxwell and the chairman for bringing me in last year and giving me that chance, and all the players in the team.

“I’d like to say a special thank you to Paul Gallacher, the goalkeeping coach, and all the goalkeepers like Ryan Scully who worked really hard this year to push me in every training session, and the young boys as well.

“And of course the fans for being really supportive and all the people at the club for making me feel really welcome and supporting me.

“It means a lot, because it’s my first season with Partick Thistle, and to be voted the player of the year by the fans is a great privilege for me. I’m happy that the season has gone well personally and as a team.

“I’m grateful for how the supporters have been with me, they’ve been great from the first game I played for the club. They’ve really shown me great support and I’m really thankful for that.”

While Cerny was satisfied on a personal level with how the season went, and pleased with the overall performance of the team, he is determined to do even better next season.

Particularly as when it came to the crunch at the tail end of the campaign, he was unable to influence matters on the park due to injury.

“Always the main goal for the club was to stay in the league and we achieved that, however if you’re one goal away from being in the top six, you are obviously completely gutted,” he said.

“We stayed up though and that was the main thing this year.

“Personally we were solid defensively for most of the season, and given the very difficult start we had to the season in the first nine games, when you look at the table now it doesn’t look so bad.

“It was massive to be able to communicate well with the defenders and manage most of the games well.

“We had Danny Seaborne who has loads of experience, Freddie Frans as well with plenty of experience, myself and young Liam Lindsay, so it’s been a great mix.