Partridge eyes starting spot - exclusive

Last updated : 16 August 2005 By Andy Parsons

The former Liverpool winger has impressed Wednesdayites in his three cameo appearances this season, but when the Irish star gets match fit, he is hoping to push the likes of Chris Eagles and Chris Brunt all the way.

He told Footymad: "It’s always tough when you come into a game off the bench but I think I will have to get a few games under my belt and a few reserve games to get my fitness up to scratch and hopefully start pushing for a first-team place every week.

"I’m generally a fit lad but it’s just a case of getting match fit at the moment, and when you are playing 15, 20 or 30 minutes here and there it’s never ideal but something to work on. I’m sure if I did start a game I would pretty much last it so we’ll wait and see what happens."

Partridge has signed a deal at Hillsborough until the end of the year and is has his fingers crossed that he will have done enough by December to warrant an extended contract.

"Hopefully," he says, "I’m always looking to extend my contract, especially with a club like Wednesday who are a massive club and I would love to stay here for longer than the six months that I signed for. So touch wood, everything goes to plan and I can stay with the club for a long time."

On the Saints game at the weekend, Partridge thinks that the club are still on a learning curve and is confident that Wednesday will do better as the season goes on.

He says: "It was always going to be hard with us, a team who has just been promoted up against a team who have just been relegated from the Premiership. You could see that they had quality and strength in depth in their team and we are still getting used to this league. I am sure if we played them a couple of months down the line I think it would have been a bit better of a contest.

"It’s another game under out belts though and a lot of our players haven’t played at this level before and the more games we play, we can take more experience from it and some of our younger players, playing against some of their big, strong men will take lots from it."