Dundee 0-0 Cove Rangers: Final-day title showdown in Scottish Championship assured
- Published
Lee Ashcroft (centre) came closest to scoring with a header against a post
A final-day, head-to-head showdown is assured to settle the Scottish Championship title after leaders Dundee were held at home by Cove Rangers.
Queen's Park, now two points behind, have the chance to go top when they visit Greenock Morton on Saturday ahead of Dundee's visit next Friday.
Cove move a point clear of Hamilton Academical off the bottom and within two of Arbroath.
The visitors frustrated their hosts before surviving intense late pressure.
A looping header from Dundee centre-half Lee Ashcroft on to the roof net was the only threat from either side in a tense first half.
With former Dark Blues manager Paul Hartley unable to name a full complement of substitutes because of injuries, fitness began to tell and midfielder Lyall Cameron stung the palms of visiting goalkeeper Scott Fox before Ashcroft sent another header off the outside of a post in the final, dramatic seconds.
Despite the point, Cove could be left in a head-to-head of their own with Hamilton to avoid automatic relegation should Arbroath win away to Partick Thistle on Saturday as Dundee head to Queen's Park's temporary home at Stenhousemuir's Ochilview now unbeaten in nine games for theirs.
As Dundee manager Gary Bowyer told the BBC after the game, with the match being shown live on the BBC Scotland channel, "you couldn't have scripted it better".
Dundee manager Gary Bowyer: "We've got to focus on the positives. I thought we were a little slow in our tempo in the first half, but second half we came out with a better urgency in our play.
"In the second-half, we peppered their goal. We had a lot of attempts at goal. What we didn't do was make the goalkeeper work enough, but there are lots of things we can take from this game and it makes it exciting now for next week."
Cove Rangers manager Paul Hartley: "I thought the players were incredible. It's not a beauty contest coming here to try to get some kind of result - I thought they were resilient, attitude, discipline, work-rate.
"We knew we wouldn't create many chances, we went with a system to try to frustrate Dundee, we knew the home fans would get at them pretty quickly and they didn't cut us open too many times. It is a great point for us as we've given ourselves a slight chance - everybody had written us off, but we showed we have a bit of character about us."