Elliott Parish makes no bones about it — he hasn’t come to Dundee to sit on the bench.
But such is the contradictory life as a goalkeeper, he’d like nothing better than to see his Dens Park rival back in the Scotland squad.
And, while the Englishman doesn’t pretend to be an expert on Scottish goalies, he believes if Bain’s current form continues there’s every chance he’ll be getting a call from the national team in the months ahead.
The ex-England U/20 international is doing all he can to grab the No 1 jersey from his team-mate but, having watched him from the bench since the start of the season, accepts that’s no easy task.
“Fair play to Scott, he is playing some great stuff this season and all you can do is tilt your cap to him and be ready if ever the time comes that you get your chance,” he said.
“It’s tough for me to say anything about his chances with Scotland because, obviously, I’ve spent my career down in England and not seen the Scottish keepers play just as much.
“But the form he is in, he has to be really close to being involved in the squad.
“That’s me saying that and I’m his competition. That’s football, though, and being a goalkeeper.
“It’s a double-sided sword because on one side you want to get yourself in the team but you are working with each other every day in training and you become mates.
“That means you want them to do well.
“For me it’s about working hard and, when the chance comes, I have to make sure the gaffer knows he can rely on me to do the job. That’s what I’m making sure I do.”
After starting his career as a kid at Aston Villa, until this summer Parish had spent his entire career south of the border.
That meant when the option to head north to Dundee came up, he had some thinking to do.
Despite the lack of game-time to date — the 45 minutes he got in Dave Mackay’s testimonial at St Johnstone last Friday night was his first top-team appearance — he has no doubts he made the right decision.
“I’m absolutely loving it. The missus and the little one have moved up, we love the place and I love the club. It’s a fantastic one to be part of.
“I’d been in League One or League Two for a couple of seasons, so it was a choice of do the same again or bite the bullet and do something slightly different.
“I had numerous conversations with Bobby Geddes the goalkeeping coach here and I was so impressed with him I decide to come. He was such a big pull for me, it became a no-brainer.
“Of course I want to be playing but as a goalkeeper you have to be patient, whether you are the No 1 or the No 2. If you start pulling your hair out you are no use to anyone.”
Parish admits in terms of Scottish football as a whole he was not too sure what to expect. What he’s seen so far has pleased him.
“I’ve seen it’s a decent league and you have some big teams — Celtic, Rangers, Aberdeen, Hearts — in there and I would say the league has been strong as it has been for quite a while.
“I have to say from the games I’ve watched, I’ve been really impressed.”
Despite some early troubles, he sees no reason why Dundee cannot be riding high in the top flight before too long.
“For us, top six is achievable. The manager has had some time now and got hold of the squad and things are starting to come together.
“It’s been great to see the results are slowly coming. At the start I was seeing games and thinking we should really have picked something up there but we just weren’t picking the points we should have. It’s nice that’s now changing.”
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