Partick Thistle would be losing one of their key players should Stuart Bannigan leave the club, according to his Firhill team-mate Kris Doolan.

Aberdeen have been credited with an interest in bringing the 23-year-old to Pittodrie, either in the January transfer-window or during the summer upon the expiry of his contract.

Doolan admits he would be devastated to see the energetic midfielder leave the club, and hopes that they can hang on to Bannigan for as long as possible.

He said: “It would be a massive blow to us, he’s been outstanding.

“We know what to expect when a player is as good as Stuart though, the better he is playing with us then it’s inevitable that there will be more and more people coming to watch him.

“Obviously we want to get the best out of him, he’s been absolutely different class for us. I would love to see him stay. Stuart is an honest boy and a very good professional. He works really hard every day, and I’ve no doubt that whatever Stuart decides is best for him, he’ll give it 100% wherever he is.

“I would love to see him stay for as long as possible though.”

Doolan is hoping to get back amongst the goals in this weekend’s crucial encounter with Dundee after failing to net in four games since his strike against Dundee United in mid-December.

It hasn’t been for the want of trying, with his spectacular volley that cannoned off the bar leading to Thistle’s second goal against St Mirren a particularly near miss.

“I’d hit it so well that I immediately thought it was net-bound,” he said.

“I managed to get good power and pace into the ball, so I was gutted to see it come back off the crossbar.

“In times gone by we haven’t been able to get enough bodies into the box for those sorts of rebounds though, so it was good to see David Amoo getting in there to put it away.

“We’re into another big game on Saturday against another team that is around about us in the league, so we’ve got to win.

“I hit the bar with an overhead kick against them as well, it would be nice to see one fly in this weekend!

“We know what to expect from Dundee, they’re a good team, but we’ll be going out to attack.

“There’s fine margins between us at times, but they’re coming to Firhill so it’s up to us to go and take the game to them, which is what we’ll do."