McCann impressed by the spirit of his Dundee players

Neil McCann praised his Dundee players for staying mentally strong as they battled back for a vital Ladbrokes Premiership point against Hearts.

The Dens Park suffered an early setback as Ross Callachan gave the Jambos the lead just two minutes in.

But the Dark Blues - who had lost five home games on the bounce in the build-up to their meeting with Craig Levein's side - this time refused to wilt and hit back midway through the first period with Sofien Moussa's close-range strike to secure a 1-1 draw.

McCann felt his side deserved to claim all three points after dominating the remainder of the contest, although the one they claimed means they have opened up a four-point gap over Partick Thistle in the play-off slot.

Now he feels his side can now cause an upset when they travel to Glasgow twice this week to take on Celtic and Rangers - but only if they maintain their positive outlook.

He said: “There was a belief and trust in our work that led to a really good performance.

“You're looking for the players to stay strong because sometimes the head can overrule the heart and you go into yourself - but that didn't happen.

“We continued to play with purpose and I felt we gave Hearts more trouble today than many sides have done this season. That was down to our intent.

“We have taken a lot of confidence and belief from that performance.

“It's going to be a big, big task to go to Glasgow twice in succession. It's also a big demand on the fans to dip into their pocket for that but hopefully they will have seen enough from us today to see that it's doable because we need their support.

“The biggest thing for me is that when we are on it we can go to Glasgow and cause Celtic and Rangers problems if at our best.”

The draw also all but secures Hearts' place in the top-six - they now have a six-point lead over Motherwell.

The Fir Park side would have to win their final two pre-split games by comfortable margins and hope the Gorgie men lose at home to Aberdeen next week to land sixth spot.

However, Hearts boss Craig Levein is taking nothing for granted.

He said: “It's not quite secure yet. I had hoped we'd get three points and then that would be it finally put to bed.

“We will just have to do what we've got to do next week against Aberdeen.

“I thought the game went end to end. Neither side had any period of control for any lengthy period of time.

“We started the game better than Dundee but they came back into it.

“The biggest moment for me was at 1-0 up, Kyle Lafferty had a fantastic chance but the keeper made a great save, then Dundee went up the park and got the goal.

“So the frustration was that we could have gone 2-0 up and then it would have been much more difficult for Dundee to come back."