Dundee seal top six spot with hard-fought draw at Aberdeen

Dundee sealed their place in the top six of the Premiership as they completed a controversial week with a goalless draw at Aberdeen.

The Dark Blues were the better side for long spells of a match that saw Dons captain Graeme Shinnie sent off in injury time.

After the postponement of their midweek clash with Rangers, the visitors arrived at Pittodrie knowing their place in the top six would be confirmed if they matched Hibernian’s result away to Motherwell.

But the home side had other ideas.

The lively Duk was brought down by Antonio Portales in the opening stages, with the defender earning the first of three bookings for fouls on the Cape Verde man in the first quarter of the game.

From the resulting free-kick Leighton Clarkson’s effort was pushed over the bar by Jon McCracken in the Dundee goal.

Another Clarkson set-piece saw Nicky Devlin head tamely towards goal before Bojan Miovski’s persistence in the right channel fashioned an opening for Clarkson himself, only for the former Liverpool man to hit wide.

Dundee had been lively without creating a clear-cut chance until Connor Barron’s lose touch after 20 minutes allowed Luke McCowan to steal possession before playing in Lyall Cameron, but Kelle Roos stood up well to block.

A lull in the action followed until Joe Shaughnessy’s knock-down gave Dundee’s Amadou Bakayoko a chance at the edge of the area, but he sliced well wide.

Cameron then tried his luck from 20 yards, but his effort clipped the bar on the way over.

Dundee had found their feet and had the first chance of the second period as McCowan flashed a free-kick well wide.

Miovski’s neat touch allowed him to create a chance for Duk, who saw McCracken push his crisp strike wide at the near post.

But it was the visitors who had the better of the second period and Cameron should have broken the deadlock when Scott Tiffoney picked him out at the corner of the six-yard box, only for Angus MacDonald to block.

Substitute Curtis Main thought he had broken the deadlock after 72 minutes, but the flag went up for an offside against Bakayoko.

With Hibs wining at Motherwell, the Dark Blues were now throwing everything forward in search of a winner, Main again threatening, this time with a bicycle kick.

That of course left spaces at the back and Aberdeen suddenly sparked into life, with a late Duk header forcing a save from McCracken, just before news of a Motherwell equaliser got the visiting fans off their seats.

Stefan Gartenmann flashed a bicycle kick wide for the Dons deep in injury time before Shinnie, already booked for a foul on Dara Costelloe, picked up a second yellow for a late challenge on Malachi Boateng.