The prospect of a meaty 50-50 tackle with Kilmarnock’s Jordan Jones will have to wait.
Cammy Kerr’s penalty anger in Dundee’s last game has been put on hold. And the victim of the Killie winger’s Dens Park dive is only focused on helping his new manager get a win at Livingston.
Coming up against an unapologetic Jones is on the back-burner.
“I’ll make sure next time I’m up against him I won’t miss him in a tackle,” said Kerr, who was wrongly adjudged to have tripped Jones in the box and had to watch the subsequent penalty find the net.
“We both respect each other. We’ve been up against each other a few times. But it’s still not great what he did.
“These things happen but he’s now suspended for games against teams round us just now. It doesn’t change our result against them. We may or may not have got something out of the game.
“I was obviously devastated when he blew the whistle. I couldn’t believe it.
“I said, ‘look, you’ve kind of done us there’. He was like, ‘as long as we win, I don’t really care’. It’s a good mentality to have, to be fair but I was on the receiving end of it.
“When you’re up the table these things go for you but when you’re at the bottom they seem to go against you.
“But we need positivity. And not feeling sorry for ourselves is important.
“I’m desperate for another game. As a football player you’re meant to brush things off but it’s difficult sometimes. I can’t do anything about the penalty and the boys can’t do anything about the result.
“I know it sounds a cliché but we have to make sure we get things right in the next few games. You’re a footballer not just for your ability – it’s because you’re thick-skinned and can deal with these situations.”
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Kerr has seen plenty of managers come and go at Dens Park over the last few seasons and will take the latest dug-out change in his stride.
“It’s never nice to see someone lose their job,” he said of Neil McCann’s departure. “But we all know these things happen in football and you have to deal with it.
“The playing staff don’t know what goes on with the board. We just have to get on with our jobs. We came back after a couple of days off for the internationals and were getting ready to go again this weekend.
“We didn’t get any inclination that something was going to happen.”
On new manager, Jim McIntyre, Kerr observed: “The boys are saying that he’ll be a good boss to work under.
“His Ross County teams had some good results against us. I think he got top six with them and he obviously won a cup.
“I’m looking forward to working under him and hopefully he can help us get up the table.
“He had a quick chat with us on our first morning of training with him. He said that he thinks we’ve got a good bunch here and that we’ll have to work hard to get out of the position we’re in. That will mean everybody pulling in the same direction as a group. All the boys are behind him.”
There hasn’t been much to celebrate at Dens in the last couple of seasons but Kerr’s faith that the good times will return is undiluted.
“We’ve been in a position in the league that we don’t want to be and I’ve seen a few managers over quite a short space of time,” he said.
“But I always come back to the fact that this is a massive club. I always believe that there is something special waiting to happen.
“Everybody wants stability and once we get that we can push on.
“Right now we just need to steady the ship and get up the table as quick as we can. It won’t be easy, though. We’ll need to graft for it.
“We should always be aiming for the top six. At this moment it’s important that we get some momentum and then see where that takes us.
“We haven’t started well but we’re not far off the pack so there’s a long way to go.
“I think we’ve been unlucky in some games, decisions have gone against us and at other times we’ve shot ourselves in the foot by missing chances and giving away easy goals.
“This isn’t about pointing any fingers on where things have gone wrong. The old manager had his way of playing and I respect that. It hasn’t worked out for him and now we have to take the new manager’s ideas on board.
“I feel like I’m an old head at times even though I’m just 23. This will be my fifth manager since I’ve been full-time. Every time a manager comes and goes it’s a learning curve for me.”
Dundee are 12 points behind today’s opponents Livingston, who have defied expectations on their return to the top flight.
“All credit to them,” Kerr said. “They’ve been great since they came up. They’ve maybe not been the prettiest to watch but they have a strong core of players who work hard for each other and they’ve got results.
“We know how hard it will be. It’s a massive game on a sticky pitch.”
