CHRIS ERSKINE says there was no chance of him walking away from Partick Thistle following the club’s relegation to the Championship.

Like the other members of the Thistle squad, Erskine had a clause in his contract that would have allowed him to find another club rather than accept a significant pay-cut to stay at Firhill.

Despite the financial hit he was taking though, Erskine says that the only thought in his mind since the play-off final defeat to Livingston has been to do what he can to help Thistle bounce back to the Premiership at the first time of asking.

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“I had the clause in my contract, but I didn’t want to walk away on a sour note,” Erskine said. “That was the main thing for me.

“Right away I spoke to the people closest to me and told them I wanted to stay. I lost a lot of money out of it, but that’s what happens with relegation.

“I made my mind up right away that I wanted to stay and help the club get back in the Premiership again.

“It does feel like the end of an era a bit. There’s guys like Stevie Lawless who have been at the club for so long and he will be a massive miss.

“It will be strange not seeing guys like that around the club that I’ve been there with for a long number of years, and that’s the side of relegation that nobody likes, losing players and losing friends.”

As anyone who saw Erskine in the immediate aftermath of the devastating defeat to Livi would testify, being a part of a Thistle side to be relegated affected him deeply.

That feeling of despair has eased a little at least in the days since, and the support he has received from fans has helped him to slowly turn his focus on the challenges that lie ahead.

“The first few days were horrible,” he said. “I was obviously upset after the game, but you have to put things in perspective.

“We had a really bad season and we deserved to get relegated. It was obviously hard because it came down to two games and it was like a cup final, but we didn’t perform over the two legs against Livingston and we didn’t perform over the season. That’s ultimately why we went down.

“You feel bad for everybody at the club, that’s what was so hard. It’s such a good club with such good people, and that was the overriding emotion after the game, that you had disappointed everybody at the club.

“It seems as though there’s been a brilliant reaction online though. Obviously, everyone is upset that we have gone down, but there are so many supporters that have got in touch to say that they will still be supporting us as players, the club and the manager, so I’m looking forward to getting started again already.

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“We didn’t want to go down and we all want to play in the Premiership, but it’s a fresh start.

“It’s a big task that’s ahead, and it is far from automatic that we will come back up straight away.

“But it is exciting to start everything afresh.”

One constant that remains however is the man in the Thistle dugout, and Erskine was relieved when he heard the club were sticking by Alan Archibald.

“It was great news,” he said. “I’m sure he was fearing for his job.

“He’s done such a great job over the last five years, and although it never went well obviously last season, he has been great over the years.

“It would have been the easy option for the club to get rid of him, that’s what most clubs seem to do, but he’s got a good relationship with the board and they have probably looked at what he has done over the past five years.

“It’s a good decision I think, and I think it’s great that the manager is still going to be there.”