Scott Bain is not about to apologise to former gaffer Paul Hartley for any part he and his Dundee team-mates played in getting him the sack.
Not yet anyway — but there is not a hint of malice when the goalie says that.
His stance is only based on the need to be completely focused on the immediate future and keeping the Dark Blues in the Premiership.
The 25-year-old does admit he has a lot to thank the man who resurrected his career at Alloa and then gave it another boost by taking him to Dens Park just under three years ago.
Over the next month, though, his intention is to execute Hartley’s final instruction to his squad when he left early last week — stay up.
“I can’t speak for other players but I’ve not really thought about the old gaffer to be honest.
“We are second bottom of the league right now and we have five games to put that right.
There is no point in dwelling on what’s happened.
“I appreciate what he did for me and what he did for the club but my full focus on these next five games.
“When he left, the gaffer talked about making sure we keep this club in this league and that’s exactly what we’re planning to do.”
Under Neil McCann there has been little time to think about anything other than what lies ahead.
For just over a week now the Dee squad have been busting a gut as the interim manager has worked on getting them into his way of thinking.
The proof of how good that graft has been will come in the first post-split game, at Motherwell today.
But what’s already clear is the new gaffer’s arrival has given everyone a lift. Bain agrees that has been the case and reports a positive mood has returned for the first time since a run of seven straight defeats started.
“When someone new comes in it gives players, who maybe weren’t playing, a new lease of life. It gives boys who have been playing added incentive to impress and keep their place,” he added.
“I’ve definitely seen a more competitive side in training and I think everyone has bought into what the gaffer’s been saying. We’re fully focused on the next five games.
“I think one of the first things the gaffer said when he first came in is forget everything that’s happened before, concentrate of these games.
“At the end of the day it’s going to be a six-team league, if that’s how you want to see it.
“We want to win that league, we want to win every game, be seventh and get as far away from the bottom of the league as possible.
“I think anything else is irrelevant and there is no point thinking about the poor results we’ve had and the bad runs we’ve been in, because it really is a fresh start and we need to take advantage of that.”
That philosophy even extended to a remarkable last visit to Fir Park at the end of February.
That day Dundee looked top-six bound after a 5-1 victory that saw all the goals come in the first 45 minutes.
Bain, though, stresses that will count for nothing unless exactly the same kind of success is repeated.
“Obviously, we’ve had a good record against Motherwell and the last game in particular was a very good performance.
“But just like we forget the bad things from the past, we can’t spend too much time on the good.
“It’s a fresh start, like I’ve said, and our approach has to be if we go into this and play to our capabilities we will be fine.”
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