Saints skipper Kerr confident of good start despite Betfred Cup ‘disaster’

Jason Kerr believes St Johnstone can spoil Celtic’s flag day celebrations on Saturday despite what he describes as a “disastrous” start to the season for the Perth club.

A trip to Celtic Park, where the treble treble winners will unfurl their latest championship flag before kick-off, looks less than appealing for Saints after a dismal Betfred Cup group campaign which saw them suffer defeats to League 1 duo Montrose and Forfar.

Tommy Wright’s side had a miserable record against Celtic last season, losing all five matches between the teams which included 6-0 and 5-0 defeats in the domestic cups.

But new Saints captain Kerr is adamant they can summon up the kind of performance in which he excelled when they drew 0-0 at Celtic Park back in February 2018.

“Every time you face Celtic you have to go for it,” said the 22-year-old defender, pictured. “The boys are confident we can get a result against them and I don’t think there is a better time to play them. I was part of the team when we drew 0-0 at Parkhead but mostly my experiences against them haven’t been good.

“We lost to them 6-0 at home last season which wasn’t great but that won’t happen again. There is never much expectation when we go to Celtic Park or Ibrox and that can sometimes help us.

“Looking at the results in the Betfred Cup, it has not been great for us so far. It has been a bit of a disaster but, as a squad, we know how good we are. We have actually been playing good football without taking our chances. We know that we do have the quality and are confident of turning it round.

“It looks bad when a Premiership club loses to two League 1 sides. But I don’t think it is panic stations just yet. “Weknowwehaveagood squad and if we add a few more players then we will be okay. We have plenty of players who have been over the course.”

Kerr is looking forward to forming a central defensive partnership with Estonian international Madis Vihmann who has joined Saints on loan from Flora Tallinn, and is relishing his role as skipper following the summer departure of Joe Shaughnessy.

“The gaffer trusts me to give me the captaincy,” added Kerr. “I remember him two years ago saying he would give me the armband one day so it’s good that it has happened so soon. It will be a big season for us and hopefully we can replicate previous recent campaigns when we made top six and qualified for Europe.

“The managers said before we have turned into a ‘nicey nicey’ team who pass the ball about. We have signed the big Estonian who is 6ft 5ins and he will give us a presence. We need to be a bit tougher.

“It doesn’t look too good when you are captain and get off to a bad start like we have in the Betfred Cup. But we just have to take it on the chin and hopefully get off to a good start in the league.”