As we reflected on a month full of strong performances across the Thistle team, it was hardly a surprise that there was no runaway winner when it came to the McCrea Financial Services Player of the Month voting.

In the end, Dan O’Reilly claimed the March prize with around 32% of the overall ballot just ahead of Lee Ashcroft, Logan Chalmers and Luke McBeth all of whom also received plenty of votes from the Jags faithful.

The Irish defender’s case for the award was predicated on his contribution to four clean sheets in four games during March but was greatly enhanced in the final game of the month when he headed in the decisive goal during an important league win over fellow play-off hopefuls Greenock Morton – his third goal of the season and second in as many games against the Ton.

Upon receiving the award, Dan said:

“It’s nice to win my second award of the season but this month it could easily have gone to six or seven different players.

“The unbeaten run that we’ve been on has been excellent. We feel like we’ve been back to being hard to beat and we’ve also tried to implement a certain style of play even when conditions have been tough.

“As everyone knows, the games only get more important as we get closer to the end of the season and hopefully we can keep doing what we’ve been doing to secure a play-off spot.”

As part of the Monthly Player of the Month Award, McCrea Financial Services provide a charitable donation with Dan opting for Scottish Autism to be the beneficiary on his behalf.

Dan explained: “I support an autism charity, that is very close to my family’s hearts back home in Ireland and, as I am playing in Scotland, it is only right that I support a Scottish autism charity as well.”