IF YOU’RE not prepared to appreciate the opportunity you have as a Pars player, stay in the house.

But, if you have the mentality of understanding the history of Dunfermline, and are prepared to work as hard as you can to make them successful, you’re exactly what John Hughes wants on his training pitch.

The new Athletic manager, who takes his team to Partick Thistle tonight in the Scottish Cup, spoke candidly about where he wants to take the East End outfit after winning his first match in charge on Saturday.

That, ultimately, is back to the top flight but, in the meantime, Hughes has been busy ensuring his players are in no doubt about what he expects of them while they are pulling on the black and white jersey.

“If you’re a Dunfermline player, and in the mindset of coming in and saying it’s only Dunfermline, we play in the Championship, and don’t appreciate what you’re doing – stay in the house. I don’t want you on my training pitch,” he said this week.

“If you’re coming in with the mindset and appreciation of the size of the club, look about and see what we did on Saturday and say, ‘I fancy a bit of that’ – and, listen, we might fail – jump aboard, because that’s where we’re going to go.

“If it’s not them, it’ll be somebody else. If it’s not me, it’ll be somebody else, because no-one’s ever bigger than the club. But we’ve got the chance as a group to try and bring smiles to the fans, try to give the fans the appreciation of what they’re watching, and make them happy.

“I know where I want to take the club; it’s up there, it’s back into the Premiership. That’s not going to be easy but that’s up there, that’s getting manifested.

“Will we get it wrong? Yep. Will we get beat? Yep. Will we win, will we have good times, bad times? Yep, part and parcel of football. Will decisions, will luck go for us, go against us? Yep, we need to take it. But, within all that, the process does not change.

“Learn it, understand it, speak to each other and then enjoy your football.”

Hughes added: “A lot of the stuff we tried to implement, it was nice to see it coming together. We were a little bit concerned that there was too much information but all credit to the players – you can see that they’ve been taking it on board.

“I think they all know what I expect and what I’m looking for. We’ve had a great response; we want to keep winning.”