Kilmarnock hit back to deny Dundee victory in a hard-fought encounter at Rugby Park.
Chances were few and far between in a dull first half as Dundee's play-makers Georgi Nemsadze and Fabian Caballero struggled to find time to play against a tenacious home side.
Caballero did have the chance to pick up a pass in the sixth minute and he flicked a lovely ball through to send Nacho Novo behind the Kilmarnock defence.
The striker took the ball round goalkeeper Colin Meldrum easily but could not pack enough punch into his shot and Freddie Dindeleux got back to clear.
The closest Kilmarnock came to scoring in the opening period followed confusion at the centre of the Dundee defence where Lee Wilkie and substitute Tom Hutchinson left the ball to each other and allowed Paul Di Giacomo to fire a dipping 30 yarder inches wide of the far post.
Dundee began the second half brightly and penned the home side into their own penalty box and it was no surprise when the Dark Blues took the lead in the 54th minute.
Tom Cowan's long ball forward was knocked back to Nemsadze by Novo who spun and received the perfect return pass from the Georgian and he calmly slid the ball under the advancing Meldrum.
The home side pushed forward looking for an equaliser, but despite the best efforts of Stevie Murray they were lacking in imagination and invention.
The spark they were looking for arrived in the 79th minute. Steve Fulton played an innocuous looking pass through the inside right channel but Kris Boyd outfought Cowan and lashed a ferocious shot in off the underside of the crossbar.
Kilmarnock twice came close to snatching an undeserved winner first when Julian Speroni uncharacteristically spilled a cross but Barry McLaughlin's lob goalwards was cleared off the line by Cowan.
Lee Wilkie was next to Dundee's rescue with a brilliant tackle to deny Colin Nish a shooting opportunity.