Aidan Nesbitt is relishing the prospect of three months of first team football.
The teenager enjoyed his first taste of Premiership football on Thursday night as he helped Partick Thistle to a 2-0 win over St Johnstone.
Apart from a five minute debut against Raith Rovers in the League Cup Nesbitt has had to contend with playing in the Development League and UEFA Youth Cup but is now ready for the demands of regular top team action.
“It was a different level from the Under-20s,” he said after his Thistle debut. “It’s a step up I feel I’m more than ready to take because I’ve been playing development football for two seasons now.
“This move has come at the right time and I felt at ease out there. I enjoyed myself – I hadn’t played for three weeks so it was a good 80 minutes for me, although I was feeling it a bit towards the end.
“The physicality is something I need to deal with and I am pretty aggressive anyway, although I do need to get stronger. That will come with time, though.
“It had got to the stage where first-team football was a priority for me and, with more players coming into the club, myself and Ronny Deila thought it was best for me to go out on loan.
“When I got the option to join a club playing in the top division, it was obviously the right thing for me to do.
“The players at Firhill have been brilliant with me. They’re a great bunch of boys.
“We should definitely be looking up the table now because we’re only three points behind Dundee in sixth place and we have games in hand.
“The physicality is something I need to deal with and I am pretty aggressive anyway, although I do need to get stronger. That will come with time, though. There’s no reason why we shouldn’t be ambitious and try to push as high up the table as we can.”
On Saturday Thistle face Motherwell at Fir Park.