FREDERIC FRANS insists motivation won't be in short supply as Partick Thistle's season threatens to tamely fizzle out.
Knocked out of the William Hill Scottish Cup last weekend, nine points adrift of the top six, and seven points clear of the relegation play-off spot, there would seem to be little for Alan Archibald's side to play for over the remaining 14 matches.
Frans, however, believes simply wanting more victories will be enough to drive him and his Thistle team-mates on over the coming months.
"What motivates us is to get wins," said the Belgian. "If you are a team that wins, you get better publicity, it is better for the club and as a player you get noticed. Of course, we will try to get to the top six but we can't talk about the top six. We need to start winning games and to be safe first, then we can see. When we talk about the top six, we don't make it and we miss opportunities. First of all we want to get a winning streak and then we will see."
Thistle have struggled to find top form of late, Wednesday night's 3-0 home defeat to Celtic stretching their recent record to just one win in nine. Frans hopes they can start to turn the corner away to Dundee tomorrow.
"We lost to St Mirren and that was a game we shouldn't have lost," added the defender. "A cup game is different. It is disappointing to lose to St Mirren and Celtic. Now it is up to us to bounce back against Dundee. We showed in the past that we can win those games, so why not?"
Thistle never really gave themselves a chance against Celtic, conceding a goal to Gary Mackay-Steven after 38 seconds and then another to Stuart Armstrong on the half-hour mark. A rousing team-talk from Archibald saw them finally get on the front foot early in the second half only for a third Celtic goal from Stefan Johansen to kill off any momentum.
"When you start the game and you are behind after one minute then it is going to be very difficult," acknowledged Frans. "In the dressing room, everyone was saying we were going to give it a good go and try to match them. Then, after one minute, it is 1-0 and you know it is going to be difficult. In the first half, we didn't do enough and we showed them too much respect
"The manager gave us a speech at half-time about how we were giving them too much respect. In the second half, we tried to give it a go. Of course, we are playing against the best team in the league so it was not going to be easy. But at least we tried it in the second half. Now we have to take the second half into the next game and build on it."
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