Mark McGhee insists bottom side Dundee can still escape relegation

Dundee boss Mark McGhee insists his side still have a chance of securing their cinch Premiership survival against all the odds.

The bottom-of-the-table Dark Blues are now six points behind 11th-placed St Johnstone following Saturday’s fixtures with Dundee drawing against Aberdeen at Dens while Saints beat Livingston at McDiarmid.

Dundee will now make the short trip to Tannadice – a venue they last won at in 2004 – next week for the derby with Dundee United.

It is the last game before the split but McGhee still believes that his team can avoid automatic relegation.

The 64-year-old said: “We’re hopeful, and I’m not disrespecting St Johnstone in any shape or form, as they’ve had a great result.

“We got absolutely mullered by Livingston and they’ve gone and beaten them but they play Celtic next week.

“There’s a huge game for us down the road but it’s a game, having looked at today’s match and with the likes of Charlie Adam coming back, that we can go and win.

“If we can win that and the rest goes to form, we could be standing next Saturday night three points behind St Johnstone with five games to play.

“Anybody who writes us off at this stage is being premature.”

Aberdeen boss Jim Goodwin was left frustrated that his team had failed to secure all three points despite twice taking the lead at Dens.

Calvin Ramsay and Ross McCrorie were on the mark for the Dons but they were pegged back by goals from Dundee’s Jordan McGhee and Danny Mullen.

Aberdeen’s top six fate remains out of their hands – they sit in ninth place, two points behind Hibs in sixth.

However, Goodwin insists all they can do now is try to win their final pre-split game against Ross County next week and hope other results go their way.

The 40-year-old said: “Credit to Dundee but we should have won the game pretty comfortably.

“It was a bit of brilliance from Calvin and Ross’ goal required a good touch and awareness to find the bottom corner.

“We scored two good goals from our point of view, but the goals we conceded were extremely poor. Two goals in the game should be enough to win it.

“The one positive is that we are still in it, albeit we are relying on Hibs not winning.

“We need to beat Ross County and then we have a chance of top six, but Malky Mackay will be saying the same thing.”