Cammy Kerr is hoping the new arrivals at the club can prove to be the crucial difference when the Dark Blues travel to Palmerston for their William Hill Scottish Cup replay with Queen of the South tonight.
Jim McIntyre’s men came out of cold storage 10 days ago after the winter break and struggled to shake off the cobwebs as they were pitched straight back in against the Doonhamers.
There were debuts for recent arrivals Seny Dieng, Craig Curran, Andy Dales and Andrew Nelson in the game that ended 1-1.
Now though with two more matches against Hearts and Motherwell under their belts, Kerr is hoping they can help Dundee make it through to the next round.
When asked if he felt that with the new guys bedded in from the first game with Queens, they would make a big difference, the 23-year-old full-back said: “I hope so. I think we need to go down there under no illusions about how tough it will be.
“It is on astro turf, they have been good this year and are picking up a lot of form.
“But we are the Premiership side and we need to go there puffing the chest out a bit, going with confidence. We have to make sure we get a result.
“The new signings have made a difference.
“They have been good but it is about continuing that and proving your worth to the team.”
As well as new additions, there has also been a noticeable quickening of tempo from Dundee in their last two games – the win last Wednesday at Hearts and the defeat at Dens on Saturday by a single goal to Motherwell – and it’s something Kerr admits has to continue at Palmerston.
He said: “The manager is really big on moving the ball quickly, getting it forward and playing in their half.
“I think the wide men have been really important for us in recent weeks with the way they play, being direct and getting at defenders.
“So it is a step in the right direction and we just need to keep it going.
“The former manager had his ways of playing and we worked very hard on that but it is a totally different style now.
“One isn’t wrong or right – everyone has different ways of playing.
“It is going to take time though as the two styles are so different.”
Kerr added: “I think everyone played really well on Saturday against Motherwell.
“We created so many good chances and maybe on a different day they would go in. Obviously we are disappointed not to score but there were big strides forward in terms of performance.
“But we need to make sure we build on that. We can’t just say it was a good performance minus the result – we need to keep building on that.”
Kerr admitted that while ensuring league safety was the priority, a cup run would also be good for confidence.
He added: “It would be massively important. Obviously we are under no illusions about how the club has performed in the cup in recent years.
“There is always a big thing about how Dundee haven’t done well in the cups.
“So a cup run could go a long way to building confidence.”
