Iain Davidson needs only to take one look at the opposing dugout to know Dundee are in for a tough test against Livingston.
The 29-year-old midfielder-turned-centre-half spent several seasons under former boss John McGlynn when the pair were at Raith and reckons the fact the experienced coach lives and breathes football means the Dark Blues will have to be ready for anything when they host Livi.
It is a game league leaders Dundee will be expected to win, but Davidson has urged his team-mates to be wary of the threat Livingston will pose.
“I know him very, very well, I’ve got a lot of time for him and worked under him for many years, so you know his teams are going to be well organised and hard-working,” Davidson told Courier Sport.
“I think they will end up going on to do well. They might finish mid-table and maybe sneak a play-off place because they will be so well organised and will work so hard.
“They do everything during the week and I know John inside out. I still keep in touch with him on a regular basis but I’ll probably not speak to him this week until after the game.
“I’ve got a lot of time for him, he’s a great coach and he’s just football 24/7.
“He does live and breathe football and again that could be his downfall because sometimes he doesn’t switch off.
“But he’s a fantastic guy and the things he did at Raith Rovers were fantastic.
“Come Saturday we’ll be friends after the game but three points for Dundee is the most important thing.”
Davidson will be available today after serving a two-game suspension for a late red card against Alloa a dismissal he hopes will not see him frozen out of the team.
“It’s nice to be available,” he continued.
“It’s obviously been frustrating the last two games but the boys have done well. Frustrating is probably the correct word because I genuinely thought it was an undeserved red card.
“Ben Gordon, the centre half, has come on for the last 10 minutes and there was a little scuffle from a bye-kick just before it.
“I’ve gone and won a header and as I’ve landed on the ground he’s landed on top of me and on the blind side of the linesman he’s dug an elbow and again on the blindside I’ve just given him a knee in the back.
“Then we’ve got up and it’s been handbags, pushing each other, and then we’ve just got on with it. Obviously the gaffer after the game has had a word with the linesman who says I’ve kicked the boy in the head and that wasn’t the case.
“I wouldn’t mind if they actually got it right, but the boy Gordon didn’t make a meal of it, I didn’t make a meal of it and he said after the game that there was nothing in it and I didn’t deserve to be sent off.
“At the end of the day, that’s exactly what happened and we couldn’t appeal it because there was no video evidence.
“Who knows if it will cost me my place in the team because the boys have done well, so it will be interesting to see what happens.
“If the manager doesn’t change it then there’s not much I can do about it. The boys have done very well the last two games so time will tell what will happen.”
Due to his ban, Davidson has been forced to look on from the sidelines as the team recorded wins over Dumbarton and Raith Rovers to stay Championship leaders.
And he admits the victory against his old club in Kirkcaldy could well prove to be a massive one.
He said: “We left it a bit late but at the end of the day it was three points, two goals and a clean sheet, so it was a good day’s work. I thought we edged it to be honest and the boys deserved it.
“It was a big win because the games against Raith have been pretty close and we probably let ourselves down in the Scottish Cup tie here against them.
“It’s a big month ahead but the old clich is we’ll take each game as it comes. We’ll not get carried away. You know what type of league it is and you can cut each other’s throats.
“The games we have been defeated in this season are the games where we have really let ourselves down.
“You don’t mind going out and playing well and being beaten but I think the defeats, we were playing within ourselves. We’ve just got to keep performing to the levels we should be.”
On-loan defender Adam Cummins, who signed from Motherwell on Thursday, will go straight into the squad.
Winger Nicky Riley and Stephen O’Donnell will be missing through injury, while striker Craig Beattie has also been ruled out until the end of next month following knee surgery.