PARTICK THISTLE are set up for a successful season according to captain Kris Doolan, because the squad is now filled with players who care about the club.

Immediately following the play-off final defeat to Livingston in May, manager Alan Archibald said that relegation clearly hurt some of his players more than others.

And experienced striker Doolan, who has been at Firhill for almost a decade, agrees with his boss’s assessment. But he feels that the players both old and new at the club have the passion for the Jags that will be required to haul them back into the Premiership.

“I think it was obvious to see,” said Doolan. “You could see the ones that it meant a lot to, and to be fair, they are the ones that are still here.

“I understand players leave for whatever reason, to further their careers, or if they are released it is a different story.

“But you could see it meant a lot to some players, and thankfully, they are still there.

“I think that’s exactly what we need this season, people about the place that the club means something to.

“There’s got to be a meaning going into every game and you have to go out there with passion, it’s not just being hopeful that we might pick up points.”

While Doolan was keen to stress that he didn’t feel all the players who left in the summer had turned their backs on the club, he never contemplated moving on himself despite a clause in his contract allowing him to walk away for free.

He feels a sense of duty to repay the supporters and the club for the pain inflicted upon them last season, and he thinks that his current teammates share that desire.

“It was never an option for me,” he said. “It’s just a clause that is put in contracts, but it was never an option for me to walk out.

“It was nice to see some other players doing the exact same and having the mentality that they would stick by the club. It’s the club that has to get back to the Premiership, not individuals.

“Hopefully by us sticking around and by adding some quality players, we can do that.

“The club means the world to me. I’ve been there for nearly 10 years now and I’ve seen the good times and the bad times, so for me to just walk away…

“That’s what players do, that’s a hard side of relegation. Players just walk away to other clubs and don’t think twice. I’m not that kind of player.

“The club means a wee bit more to me, and I couldn’t just walk away and join another team. It never crossed my mind.

“I knew that I would have to take a wage drop to stay, that was always going to happen with relegation and I was prepared for that.

“Money isn’t everything. At the end of the day, it’s not as if I’m making vast amounts anyway, but I was willing to take the wage drop to help the club get back to where it should be.”

Doolan thinks that Thistle are among the favourites to win promotion, but only if they can reignite the spark that rather dimmed within their players last term.

“That’s got to be the main aim,” he said. “We’ve spoken about it in house that we need to have a hunger and desire that probably fizzled out last season.

“Ultimately, we paid the price for that, so this season is all about paying that back to our fans and our club.”