Kerr not counting on Clyde’s fixture fatigue
ST JOHNSTONE’S run to League Cup glory this year may have been fortuitous given that they avoided facing either half of the Old Firm on their way to lifting the trophy for the first time. The players know they will receive no such luxuries if they want to pull off a double.
Callum Davidson’s men host Clyde this evening, where they will be hoping to take advantage of their opponents’ frantic fixture schedule of late. Remarkably, this afternoon’s cup tie will be the Bully Wee’s eighth outing this month already.
Naturally, Saints will be expected to defeat their League One opponents and progress to the next round, where a tie with either Celtic or Rangers awaits.
Club captain Jason Kerr admits knowing what lies in store for today’s victors takes away some of the magic of the cup but after becoming the first player in the history of the club to lift the League Cup, he has designs on finishing the campaign with another winners’ medal draped around his neck – but the centre-half insists that he and his teammates remain fully focused on the task at hand.
“I don’t envy Clyde playing Saturday, Tuesday, Thursday, Saturday,” he said. “I think it would be hard for any fulltime professional player, never mind a part-time team. They’ll be playing games and going to their job so it’s going to be really tough for them.
“We’re going to be as professional as we can. They’re a good team and I’ve played against them a few times when I was on loan. They’ll get full respect and if we play like we have all season we’ll do well.
“With the two rounds getting drawn at the same time it takes away some of the excitement if you were to progress. We know it would be Rangers or Celtic.
“The last two games we’ve played them we’ve played well. We were unlucky not to get a result against Celtic at home and at Celtic Park. We played well against Rangers at Ibrox too. I’d feel like we’d have a good enough team in the dressing room to beat them.
“[The League Cup win] fills us with a lot of confidence. To win that was a massive achievement for us. We’ve had a taste and we want to do it again.”
Kerr will be taking nothing for granted this afternoon. A previous loan spell at East Fife gave the defender a grounding in the men’s game at a young age and as a result, he is well versed in the demands of football in the lower leagues.
He has particularly happy memories of facing the Broadwood club – Kerr faced the same opponents in 2016 when East Fife clinched the League Two title in 2015/16 – but also credits his time at Hearts, where he came through the youth ranks, with giving him that all-important experience of crunch fixtures at boy’s level.
“I’ve got a bad memory as it is,” Kerr conceded when asked for specific recollections about the Bully Wee, “but we actually won the league at Clyde in 2016 with East Fife. I’ve gone up against them a right few times.
“I’ve also been on the other side of this situation – playing for East Fife against Premiership sides – so I know what it’s like. They’ll have a game plan to stop us playing and we’ll need to be at our best to exploit what we want to do.
“I think those younger days – playing boys’ club, competing for trophies – can give you experience. I’ve been in a lot of boys’ club finals and won a few, and lost a few as well. I will take that into today, as I do with all my football experiences.”
I think it would be hard for any full-time professional, never mind a part-time team