Dundee’s Steven Milne insists no-one in at the club is ready to run up the white flag of surrender on their title aspirations just yet.
However, after drawing against league leaders Ross County on Saturday at Dens, he did concede that the Staggies can now only throw away the championship.
Last week was a pivotal one for the Dark Blues and their hopes of finally making it back into the SPL. And after only drawing against second-placed Falkirk on Tuesday night, they simply had to secure three points against Derek Adams’ side.
Instead, they could only achieve parity in a game which was a grim war of attrition for the 5,003 fans watching on.
Dundee, with former Hibs and Falkirk midfielder Kevin McBride starting as a surprise trialist, looked nervy from the start against a County side playing a high-tempo pressing game.
It was no surprise when the Staggies took an early lead in the 11th minute after Scott Morrison directed a cross to Richard Brittain in the Dundee box and the County captain played the ball back into the path of Stuart Kettlewell looking suspiciously offside for a simple tap-in.
Barry Smith’s side struggled to recover from that hammer blow. However, they were handed a controversial lifeline when Carl Finnigan jinked his way into the County penalty area and was brought down by Kettlewell.
Referee Mike Tumilty, who infuriated both sets of players and fans with a catalogue of baffling decisions all day, initially ruled out Dundee claims for a penalty. However, his assistant Derek Rose seemed to sway him into awarding a spot kick.
Ryan Conroy stepped up to calmly drill the ball past Michael Fraser in the Staggies’ goal.
The second half saw County content to sit in with Dundee struggling to break down their well-organised defence.
Indeed, it was the visitors who came closest to taking the lead again when former Dundee player Colin McMenamin saw a header deflected on to Rab Douglas’ crossbar.
Finnigan could have won another penalty late on when he appeared to be wrestled to the ground by Grant Munro but Tumilty was not impressed.
Then, in the dying seconds, Finnigan was inches away from tapping in a Graham Bayne cross. However, the chance slipped away and with it possibly the Dark Blues’ hopes of resurrecting their title challenge.
Milne said: ”We are in the same sort of position now only having played one less game. Obviously, the result was disappointing as we wanted to win the game. We gave it our best shot but once again we have given a team a goal of a start which gave them something to defend and they did that.
”We then managed to get the penalty. The ref didn’t look like he was going to give it but I think the linesman probably had a better view looking across the pitch and the guy definitely stuck a leg out.
”We had another shout for a penalty in the second half when Carl Finnigan was wrestled to the ground but you often find that when a ref has given one in a game, it has to be a stonewaller for him to award another.”
Milne admitted Dundee simply cannot afford any more slip-ups if they hope to capitalise on a County collapse.
He said: ”There are still 11 games to go and if we can put a string of wins together, then we are confident we can still do it. But we simply have to start winning games. I think that’s five games we’ve drawn in a row and it isn’t really good enough.”
He added: “I think if you want to win leagues you have to be able to dig out a result when you don’t play well. I think we could be better at doing that.”
Frustrated Dundee boss Smith said: ”They will be happier with the point than us for varying reasons. I said it last week that we couldn’t continue conceding early goals and giving ourselves an uphill struggle.
”That’s the problem we have been experiencing over the last four games. We have had to chase to get back into things. We will just focus on winning games from now on.”