The roar that greeted Gary Harkins’ equaliser for Dundee six minutes from the end of this match was of the type more generally reserved for a title-securing feat. The release of tension from the Dundee supporters was understandable, as the Irn-Bru first division leaders had spent most of Saturday afternoon giving the impression that they wanted to keep the promotion race healthily alive rather than smothering the life out of it.

Slack clearances from the Dundee defenders, players in every position needlessly giving away possession to Inverness Caledonian Thistle on a regular basis and even Rab Douglas, the goalkeeper, messing up his throw-outs were the principal features of this Dundee display and the home side were wide open when Richie Foran and Eric Odhiambo scored the goals that gave Inverness a 2-0 lead going into the latter stages.

Terry Butcher, the Inverness manager, described Dundee’s comeback to draw through late, speculative goals from Brian Kerr and Harkins, as one of the biggest disappointments of his managerial career, an understandable reaction, given that a win would have put Inverness on Dundee’s heels. The Dens Park side, as so often this season, had retrieved something from a match in which they had been the poorer side but they deserve admiration for the manner in which they roused themselves for the final productive push.

“We did not start playing until the last 20 minutes,” Harkins said, “so it’s a good point. My shot got a lucky deflection but I’ll take it. We’ve got such belief in ourselves that we can always come back from being a goal or two down.

“We’re not fussed if people say we’re lucky. Ross County came back from 2-0 down to draw 2-2 with Dunfermline and the papers said they’ve got the look of champions. We’ve done the same but we’ll all still probably end up with marks of fives and sixes in the papers. Other managers can say what they want about us too.”

Butcher is one manager who has been underwhelmed by Dundee — he believes his side have been the better team in all four encounters between the sides this season but he was disappointed in Ryan Esson, his goalkeeper, conceding from shots that Kerr and Harkins fired in from distance; 35 yards in Kerr’s case.

“It feels as though we’ve just been beaten,” Esson said. “I thought we had it; we played well and frustrated them. You could say Dundee were lucky but they created their own luck.”

Dundee (4-4-2): R Douglas 5 — E Paton 6, J Lauchlan 5, G MacKenzie 5, E Malone 5 — A Shinnie 6 (sub: C McMenamin, 80min), B Kerr 6, C Forsyth 5, G Harkins 6 — L Griffiths 6, B Hutchinson 4 (sub: S Higgins, 63 4). Substitutes not used: A Bullock, C McKeown, M Klimpl. Booked: MacKenzie.

Inverness Caledonian Thistle (4-3-2-1): R Esson 5 — R Tokely 6, N Bulvitis 5, G Munro 5, S Golabek 5 — R Duncan 6, L Cox 6 (sub: D Sanchez, 90), A Rooney 7 — J Hayes 7, E Odhiambo 7 (sub: D Proctor, 78) — R Foran 6. Substitutes not used: K Allison, R McBain, R Eagle. Booked: Cox, Munro.

Referee: C Brown. Attendance: 4,974