Dundee chief executive Scot Gardiner has branded Hamilton’s 10-2 victory over Morton as “laughable” and “ridiculous”.
The Dark Blues won their own game 2-1 against Dumbarton to go up as Championship champions on Saturday.
However, had the Sons equalised then it would have been Accies who would have been promoted because the Lanarkshire men would have been on the same points total of 67 and goal difference but scored more goals than the Dens club 68 against 54.
In that nightmare scenario for Dundee, questions would have been asked about that fixture at New Douglas Park or “pub score” as Gardiner put it.
He carefully chose his words but you get the feeling Scottish football would have been plunged into turmoil had that result taken Hamilton up to the Premiership.
“Our result was probably what I thought it would be before the game as I believed it would be close,” Gardiner said. “You can’t take into consideration the ridiculous goings-on at Hamilton.
“We won and that’s all we had to do. Credit to our team for that.
“That was a ridiculous score, wasn’t it? Other people are going to be asking questions no doubt. People will ask how they got a score like that.
“We don’t care now because we won the league. We won the league because we won more games than anyone else.
“Thankfully, on the day, the victory here meant we finished with more points than anyone else because if it had gone to goals scored I am sure there would have been a lot of people asking questions.
“It is bizarre and there is no one in the game who can say that it’s not bizarre. I am even laughing when I say it. It is laughable but it wouldn’t have been funny had we not won.
“We knew about the scoreline as it was happening. One of our players, Kevin McBride, was told by one of the Dumbarton players that it was 7-1 at one stage and he told him to get lost as he didn’t believe him. Our players had no idea.
“It was worrying in the last few minutes absolutely terrifying! We needed our keeper Kyle Letheren to pull off a Gordon Banks save at the end.
“It looked a goal all the way and had he not done that we would have lost the league to a pub score.
“But the great thing is that it doesn’t matter now. I don’t care now.”