Stand-in skipper insists Dee won’t roll over now

“It was disappointing at Rangers, obviously. But you can’t dwell on losses, you need to sweep them to one side and use that sour taste it leaves in your mouth to kick on for St Johnstone.”

New boy AJ Leitch-Smith made his Dundee debut off the bench on Saturday, with summer-signing Lewis Spence starting in the league for the first time.

Kerr admits it will take time for the new-look side to gel but was suitably impressed with what he has seen from Spence so far.

Kerr said: “We’re a close-knit group and, obviously, with boys coming into the team that haven’t played, it might take a wee while for them to bed in.

“But I’m pretty sure that, given time, the boys will settle in.

“Spencey was great. It’s obviously going to be tough in the midfield for him when he’s going up against boys like Ryan Jack, Graham Dorrans and Niko Kranjcar but he did great.

“He worked his socks off for the 90 minutes and that’s the least you expect. He played well for us on Saturday.”

Unfortunately for the Dark Blues, they have a couple of tricky fixtures ahead. First up is the visit of Tommy Wright’s unbeaten Perth men.

Then, in a break from league duty, the Dark Blues follow this up with a visit from “invincible” treble-winners Celtic in a Betfred Cup tie next midweek.

Striker AJ Leitch-Smith replaced Scott Allan to make his first run-out.