Kerr on cap drive
Skipper still hopeful of senior Scotland call-up
Jason Kerr is not giving up hope of working his way into the national squad.
The St Johnstone skipper has previously been capped at under-21 level but is yet to receive a call-up to the senior side.
Kerr, now 23 and who has enjoyed a solid start to the season, realises there are a number of good defenders currently in Scotland boss Steve Clarke’s set-up.
But that does not curb his determination to impress further with the Perth club in order to get his name on the national radar.
“Every player has their eyes set out on playing for the national team,” Kerr explained to the PA.
“I just need to be patient and hopefully a chance will come. I just need to keep playing well.
“If you aren’t playing well, you are obviously not going to be involved in the Scotland set-up.
“There are a lot of good defenders in the squad and I can’t be too disappointed with any selection that has been made. I just need to bide my time.
“I’ve got experience of the under21s and a few of those boys have moved up to play with the full squad.
“Hopefully that can work in my favour if I was to get picked for the national team.
“But, as I said, all I can do is play well for St Johnstone and hopefully that chance comes one day.”
Kerr is in to his second season as captain of Saints and has flourished playing in a back three role which has given him a touch of freedom to drive into advanced areas.
He said: “I really like playing in the three because it gives me more licence to go forward and get involved with attacking play.
“I’m a defender and do defend first, but I like getting involved up the park too. Hopefully I can come up with a few assists and goals.
“I think I was top scorer at East Fife one season - hopefully I can get it this season! When I was growing up I was naturally a midfielder. I feel it’s helped me out.”
Scoring more than his mates further up the park would also send the bragging rights into his corner.
“It would be nice to get more goals than Liam Craig this season,” Kerr smiled. “I’d have a wee chuckle with him over that.”
As Kerr alluded to, first and foremost he is a defender.
Saints, while defending resolutely for the majority of their six Premiership games, only picked up a first clean sheet last weekend against St Mirren.
“We have lost two late goals in games which is disappointing for defenders,” Kerr said, referring to the Aberdeen and Hibs defeats.
“But that clean sheet against St Mirren will really give confidence to the backline to go on and get more.
“We’ve only had one clean sheet
but I think we’ve been really good defensively.
“I feel, defensively, we’re one of the best in the league.
“For the majority of the games we’ve been playing really well. It’s been a positive start.
“Against St Mirren, although we didn’t take a lot of chances, I felt we were dominant.
“It was the best we had played and I feel like we’ll be playing more football like that over the course of the season.
“When you are doing well you don’t want the international break to come. That was true for us.
“I feel in the next game we will take more of our chances and move on to win more games.
“It’s Motherwell and Ross County next up, both winnable games. We want to take maximum points from them.”