CONRAD BALATONI had no qualms about losing his place at the heart of Partick Thistle's defensive line.

But now he is determined not to let it slip through his grasp once again after he put down a marker of his intentions against Inverness Caledonian Thistle.

After dropping out of the Partick side that beat Hamilton Academical in the Scottish Cup, Balatoni has featured in Partick's last three outings against Celtic, Kilmarnock and Inverness.

He will have to fend off the challenge from returning centre-back Frederic Frans when Dundee make the trip to Firhill this afternoon.

The 23-year-old is optimistic that he has done enough to catch the eye and keep his starting jersey.

Balatoni said: "Freddie came in and did, well but he got a hamstring injury and that gave me a chance to get back in again.

"I feel I have done well, but it is down to the gaffer. I am not playing for myself, I am playing for my team-mates and I will always give 100 per cent. That is just the kind of person I am.

"I will see what happens. I am happy here. If I play, I play. If I don't then I have just got to keep working hard.

"When you look at the top players in the world, they get dropped as well and don't play every week.

"It happens in football. You come out and go back in. I think my performances recently have been better than what they were before I came out of the team.

"I look back on that and think maybe I deserved to come out of the team. Now I am working hard to keep my place.

"I am happy to be playing and getting game time and I just want to play as many games as I can."

After narrowly losing to the Hoops and enduring a frustrating afternoon as they were held at home by Killie, Thistle got back to winning ways in stunning fashion last weekend.

Balatoni was on target as Archibald's side eased to a 4-0 win over Inverness and moved to within touching distance of a place in the top six.

Victory over the Dee today could take them up to seventh and Balatoni is eager to hit a sustained run of form over the festive period.

He said: "The big thing for us is consistency. We haven't had many defeats recently but we need to win more games and if we can win today we can start to really look above us and not behind us. There is a bit of a gap now. We want to finish as high as we can so if we can put a run of wins together that would be great.

"I don't look at the other teams or the table that must. I just concentrate on us.

"We picked up points against a team that were flying and it was probably a game that people didn't expect us to get anything from. But it won't mean anything if we get beat by Dundee now."