A ferocious fightback at Easter Road earned Dundee what could be a priceless point from an entertaining 2-2 draw.
Jim McIntyre’s men looked on course for a hiding from Hibs when the hosts went 2-0 up with just 30 minutes gone.
However, the Dens men came battling back to earn an excellent draw.
Despite such a fine result and decent performance, they actually fell further behind at the foot of the Premiership courtesy of second-bottom St Mirren’s victory over Hearts.
That was tough luck on the Dark Blues but they will still take a lot from this match.
Dundee made a calamitous start, with central defender Genseric Kusunga nodding into his own net after just 38 seconds.
They went 2-0 down on the half-hour mark when Ryan Porteous bulleted a header home for Hibs.
The visitors could have collapsed at that point but instead they dug in got a goal back through frontman Kenny Miller a minute into first-half injury time.
Then, to their utmost credit, the Dark Blues grabbed the equaliser three minutes after the break thanks to an excellent individual effort from Paul McGowan.
The Dens men had made only one change to the line-up that kicked off the draw against St Mirren, with McGowan coming in for the injured Benjamin Kallman.
Dundee began in disastrous fashion, conceding an own goal before some of their fans had even taken their seats.
It was an absolute shocker for Kusunga, with the hapless central defender heading a ball from the right that was floated in by Daryl Horgan past his own keeper Jack Hamilton.
With eight minutes on the clock, the visitors launched an attack up the left. Calvin Miller’s low cross whizzed across the face of goal but there was no Dundee player there to convert.
Two minutes later, the Hibees had the ball in the net again via Jamie MacLaren but the flag was up for offside against Horgan.
Hibs should have been two up when new Australian international – and former Dundee man – Martin Boyle bore down on goal but somehow pulled his shot wide when it looked easier to either score himself or play in teammate Florian Kamberi for a tap-in.
Having survived that scare, Dundee came close to levelling on 18 minutes when Kenny Miller’s header off Glen Kamara’s cross had to pushed away by keeper Adam Bogdan.
Hamilton flapped at a cross at the other end of the park on 28 minutes, causing mayhem inside the Dundee box. There was relief when Cammy Kerr twice blocked shots from MacLaren.
The Dens goalie, though, was beaten for a second time on the half-hour when Porteous rose to home a Stevie Mallan freekick.
Mallan then flashed a long-range shot past Hamilton’s right-hand post before the Dark Blues grabbed a lifeline a minute into first-half stoppage-time.
Nathan Ralph was the creator, with the full-back’s low cross from the left poked home by veteran striker Miller from six yards to make it 2-1 at the break.
Remarkably, the second period was fewer than three minutes old when it was 2-2.
It was a brilliant solo effort from McGowan, who left home defender Paul Hanlon standing before curling a lovely left-foot shot beyond the grasp of Hibs goalie Bogdan from 10 yards.
The delighted midfielder raced across to the band of away fans to celebrate in style.
It was all change for the visitors now and they almost went ahead on 57 minutes when Jesse Curran raced goalwards before letting fly and bringing a fine save out of Bogdan.
A Darren O’Dea header was then held by Bogdan on 67 minutes as the Dens men continued to threaten.
Boyle nearly gave the Easter Road men the lead on 80 minutes but his low drive just missed the far post but Dundee held on for a well-earned draw.
