FIRHILL star James Craigen is determined to hold on to his Partick Thistle midfield berth this term.

The 23-year-old came into the starting line-up for the home win over Motherwell earlier this month and kept his place in the side against Dundee United on Saturday.

But it was to prove a disappointing afternoon for Alan Archibald's side as they suffered a narrow 1-0 loss.

Craigen, however, is pleased to be playing his part again after a frustrating start to the season that saw him feature mainly from the bench.

He said: "I am delighted to be back in the team and back playing again.

"I had to keep working hard in training and wait for my chance to come.

"There are always things that you can improve on and get better at, so it is down to me to keep working on those things and, hopefully, I can keep my place in the team.

"The manager told me to keep working hard and that my chance would come. So, when you get an opportunity, it is up to you to keep it. We got a great result against Motherwell and I have stayed in the team.

"It is nice to be playing, but the most important thing is the team getting results."

It was another case of so near yet so far for Thistle as a deserved point slipped through their grasp at Tannadice.

Nadir Ciftci's controversial late winner was a hard blow for the Jags to stomach as skipper Dan Seaborne saw red.

But Craigen reckons there are plenty of positives to be taken after a solid performance that brought the curtain down on the first quarter of Thistle's league campaign.

He said: "It was very disappointing not to get something out of the game.

"We worked so hard, but that is football. Sometimes you just don't get what you deserve in games.

"It wasn't down to the performance that we didn't win on Saturday because the boys played well and deserved to take something from it.

"If we can keep playing like that then we will get results."

Having suffered their fifth defeat in nine Premiership outings this term, Thistle have now turned their attentions to the visit of St Johnstone this weekend.

Tommy Wright's side make the trip to Firhill in need of a result to kick-start their campaign and aiming to move above the Jags in the top-flight standings.

Thistle have won three times on home soil already this term and Craigen is pleased to see the Jags firing on all cylinders at Firhill.

He said: "Our home form has been good so far and that is obviously pleasing.

"The big thing for us was getting a win early and it was good to do that in the first game against County.

"When we didn't get an early win last year, the pressure built and people were talking about when we would do it before every game we played at home.

"In terms of the away form, we got a good point at Dundee early in the season and haven't been able to build on that so far.

"But we are looking a lot harder to beat and we could have won on Saturday."