BBC SPORT | Football | Scot Prem | Drab draw at Pittodrie

Aberdeen 0-0 Dundee

Aberdeen and Dundee fought out a dismal scoreless draw at Pittodrie to cement their mid-table places.

Goal-scoring chances were few and far between as two evenly-matched sides cancelled each other out in all areas of the park.

The home side were marginally more inventive and visiting goalkeeper Julian Speroni made two good saves to deny Darren Young.

Aberdeen made one change to the side which beat Motherwell a fortnight ago, replacing Darren Mackie with French winger Nicolas Fabiano.

Mackie missed out through injury along with Kevin McNaughtonand Laurent D'Jaffo.

The visitors made two changes in personnel, with Garry Brady dropping to the bench to make way for Steven Milne, while misfiring striker Juan Sara lost his place.

Leon Mike and Tom Hutchison
Aberdeen stage a rare attack
Aberdeen created the first opening of the match after four minutes when Leon Mike was picked out on the six-yard line by a splendid Derek Young cross, but his header was well saved by a fully-stretched Speroni.

Dundee struggled to get to grips with the Aberdeen midfield in the early stages and were in danger of being overrun in the middle of the park.

This prompted a tactical switch with Nacho Novo dropping back into midfield from attack.

Aberdeen were well on top but Dundee wasted a wonderful opportunity in the 24th minute when Fabian Caballero missed the target from 16 yards after some fine dribbling skills from Novo.

Novo had Dundee's first shot on target after 33 minutes but Peter Kjaer was equal to his effort.

News image
It was a dour struggle in the north-east
Aberdeen nearly opened the scoring with the final kick of the half when Darren Young broke free from Lee Wilkie, beating the defender for pace, and fired a shot in on Speroni but the Dundee goalkeeper managed to palm the ball onto the post.

A poor game began to deteriorate further in the second half with very little action in front of either goal.

Aberdeen wasted the best opportunity of the match in the 71st minute when Eric Deloumeaux rushed his shot and fired wide from 16 yards.

The Dons thought they had scored the winner with two minutes remaining but were foiled by a superb instinctive save from Speroni.

Darren Young shot from 20 yards and saw his effort take a deflection yards from the goalkeeper but he managed to stretch out a hand and palm the ball away.

Aberdeen: Kjaer, Rutkiewicz, McGuire, Anderson, McAllister, Deloumeaux, Bisconti, Darren Young, Fabiano, Derek Young (Clark 88), Mike (Michie 79).
Subs Not Used: Preece, Tiernan, Billio.

Booked: McAllister.

Dundee: Speroni, Smith, MacKay, Hutchinson, Wilkie, Hernandez Santos, Milne, Nemsadze (Khizanishvili 84), Rae, Novo (Sara 87), Caballero.
Subs Not Used: Langfield, Mair, Brady.

Booked: Wilkie, Nemsadze.

Attendance: 14,003
Ref: M McCurry