The Red and Yellow Army made no bones about who they thought deserved the McCrea Financial Services Player of the Month award for July with Zander MacKenzie hoovering up over 50% of the overall vote.

The 17-year-old made his first senior start for Thistle in the team’s competitive opener against Peterhead as the Jags claimed a bonus point victory, before they then went to Tannadice and won 2-1 with Zander earning the Viaplay Player of the Match award for his display.

Further starts against Falkirk and The Spartans followed with MacKenzie setting up the opening goal in the latter game as Thistle secured progression from the group stages.

All of this happened with the youngster playing out of position; filling in at right-back while Jack McMillan recovered from a knock picked up during pre-season.

On receiving the award, Zander said:

“It was obviously a great month for me personally. As a young player you want to be out there on the pitch getting minutes and if that means playing out of position then so be it – you’ve just got to go and do your best for the team and I feel I did that.

“I’m one of a few young guys who have had the chance to play so far this season which is great. The manager has shown he trusts us to go and play in the first team so it’s up to us to keep pushing ourselves and earn more opportunities in the team.”

This season McCrea Financial Services are providing each month’s award winner a donation to make to a charity of their choosing. Zander explained why he has chosen the Beatson Cancer Charity for his donation:

“When I was younger my mum had cancer so I appreciate how difficult it can be to go through for any family. The Beatson do a lot of important work in that area, helping to support families through it all, so they were the first charity that came to mind when I was deciding where my donation could go.”