Dundee draw opens door for Queen's Park to seize initiative ahead of Championship title decider

The cinch Championship title race will go right down to the wire after promotion-chasing Dundee were held to a disappointing 0-0 draw at home to Cove Rangers last night.

Dundee's Ryan Sweeney looks dejected after blazing the ball over the bar during the 0-0 draw with Cove Rangers. (Photo by Mark Scates / SNS Group)

The stalemate moved Dundee two points clear at the top of the table but second-placed Queen’s Park have the chance to jump above them and into pole position when they take on Morton today.

Next Friday night’s final round of fixtures promises to be thrilling, with Dundee heading to Ochilview to take on Queen’s Park in a title decider. “You couldn’t have scripted it any better,” said Dens boss Gary Bowyer, who tried to focus on the positives at full-time.

“We kept a clean sheet,” he added. “It makes it exciting for next week. The message to the players is exactly the same – we want to go and win the game next week.”

At the other end of the table, it was a valuable result for Cove, who moved off the bottom of the table, a point ahead of Hamilton Accies.

“The players were incredible,” said Cove boss Paul Hartley. “We were resilient. We knew we wouldn't create many chances, we wanted to frustrate Dundee.”

Dundee’s Lee Ashcroft headed against the upright during five minutes added on to a match in which Dundee could not make their dominance pay, with only four of their 16 attempts at goal on target.

The best chance of the first half came early on when Ashcroft headed narrowly over from close range, while early in the second half Mark Reynolds made a superb intervention to deny Barry Maguire what looked to be a tap-in.

Lyall Cameron sliced over late on while Luke McCowan missed the target with a tame header before Ashcroft was denied late on, meaning Queen’s Park could go one point above Dundee at the top if they win at Cappielow on Saturday.