Trevor Carson confident Dundee have what it takes to avoid relegation

Dundee goalkeeper Trevor Carson is convinced there is the talent and temperament at Dens Park to steer themselves out of relegation danger.

Five consecutive defeats in the Premiership saw Dundee’s top-six hopes slip away before they drew with St Johnstone to remain three points ahead of the bottom club.

The Perth side’s rejuvenation has breathed new life into the survival fight and Carson senses his team-mates have fully grasped what is needed ahead of Sunday’s derby with Dundee United.

“The main thing is we haven’t shied away from where we are at,” said the 37-year-old, who has previously experienced relegation with Cheltenham and Bury.

“Maybe in previous weeks we have sort of sleepwalked into the position we are in in terms of aspirations were to finish in the top six. But we are where we are now, there’s no shying away from it, we are in a battle.

“That takes a different type of character and resilience. I think we have seen that in training this week, there is a real edge to it. But we are well aware we need to win games of football.

“I have two relegations on my CV in my early career in England and both those times you are looking around the dressing room more in hope than anything. I certainly don’t feel that here.

“We have more than enough in our dressing room but for whatever reason at the minute we are not picking up results. But if you look at the results we were getting before this run, we’ve got the ability there.

“There’s no worse feeling when you look round in a dressing room and think ‘we are in a pickle here, we don’t have what it takes’. But we have an abundance of talent, experience, we have it all here.

“Football has no logic behind it sometimes and it’s certainly not through a lack of effort or putting the work in.

“I’m more than confident we will get out of this situation but you have got to put the work in, it’s not just going to happen.

“Hopefully on Sunday you will see a team battling for their lives and I feel if you keep doing that, things will turn.”

The Northern Ireland international knows winning at Tannadice for the first time in 21 years would be the perfect way to change the narrative.

“They are massive games,” he said. “They are great games to be part of, the whole city gets really buzzing for it.

“You get similar when you are playing the Old Firm but this has an extra edge to it being a derby. There is an excitement and I can’t wait for it.

“We know a win could really galvanise us for the rest of the season. You could look at it as a great game for us but only if we go and do the business.

“If we do come out with a win it lifts the whole place, the rewards for winning are huge.”