Christie Elliott eyes crucial post-split clash with St Johnstone as he insists Dundee can escape the drop

Christie Elliott says Dundee’s first half display at home to Rangers on Sunday proved they have the spirit and belief necessary to spare themselves from relegation.

The Dens Park men are now four points adrift of fellow strugglers St Johnstone at the bottom of the Premiership table after Rangers recovered from Elliott’s sixth minute opener to win 2-1.

But Elliott insists they should take confidence from how hard they made the Scottish champions work for their victory when they go into their final seven games of the season after the international break.

"We have to give that performance week in, week out now,” said Elliott. "We have seven big games now and we need that in order to be where we want to be.

"We are only going to give our all between now and the end of the season. Of course we have morale and we believe we can get out of trouble.

"We have a good squad and there is only four points difference and we still need to play St Johnstone.

"Realistically, what we do is going to dictate where we end up. It's down to us at the end of the day - we have the games and then the split and you go into it knowing you have to win.

"We just need to get as many points as we can on the board and hopefully we get out of this relegation battle.

"We were gutted to lose to Rangers in the end. In the first half especially, we felt we played well and got the goal.

"Our shape was good in the first half and we felt comfortable. In the second half, Rangers had 20 minutes when they were on top and we did go a bit deep. In the end, we just didn't have enough.”

It was Elliott’s first appearance since Mark McGhee’s appointment as manager as the 30-year-old wing-back bids to hold down a regular place for the rest of the campaign.

"I definitely