Those of the respective supporters of Aberdeen and Dundee who didn't head for the pub after this thriller might have been at home on a psychiatrist's couch.

After all, how were they supposed to feel after 94 minutes of their teams dragging their emotions in various directions in a game that took them to the heights and back down again?

The hosts bristled with confidence and pizzazz in a first half that should have seen them out of sight as they tormented and teased the visitors' defence, only to see an early opener from David Goodwillie become a deficit as Gary Irvine and Greg Stewart, a star performer for Paul Hartley's heroic side, exposed the opposition's defensive lapses with two strikes before the break.

How could this be possible, asked the Reds disciples. After all, hadn't the Dons gone eight winning games without conceding a goal prior to this encounter? Wasn't their attacking flair the hallmark of their entertaining performances?

The silence from those in the stands wearing red and white was significant and when Gary Harkins struck for Dundee soon after the interval, they would have been more at home in a Trappist monastery.

Aberdeen under Derek McInnes are nothing if not battlers. But had not Kostadin Gadzhalov, the Bulgarian centre-back playing only his second game for the Dens Parkers, needlessly fouled Lawrence Shankland, an Aberdeen substitute, in the area seven minutes from the end and allowed Jonny Hayes to sound the cavalry charge with his conversion from the spot, the shock waves would still be reverberating round the Granite City today.

"It was a stonewall penalty for Aberdeen," Iain Davidson, the Dundee centre-back, admitted. "I was right behind the incident. It cost us.

"Gadzhalov's English isn't great. I was screaming 'man-on' to him. I could see it coming. But we'll take the positives from the game. We scored some very good goals and we walked away with a point. Once we got the equaliser we started to settle down and pass the ball a bit better and our goals were very good finishes.

"We did maybe get too deep in defence. It was a natural thing. We didn't put enough pressure on the ball and Andrew Considine and Mark Reynolds were playing balls five yards inside their half.

"Could we have done better and stop those balls coming in? Possibly. I thought we were defending well but once they got the penalty they were given a lift. Adam Rooney hit the post early in the second half for them, but other than that they didn't have much by way of clear-cut chances.

"The gaffer told us in training that they put a lot of balls into the penalty area but we were dealing with them. Aberdeen look great going forward with the likes of Rooney, David Goodwillie and Peter Pawlett. They are up at the top of the league for a reason; they're there on merit and they showed great character to win a point."

The Dark Blues then made the mistake of sitting deep and allowing their opponents to pelt them with high balls into the area in search of an equaliser no-one could have foreseen ten minutes earlier and when Ryan Jack, assisted by Lawrence Shankland, who had replaced Adam Rooney moments earlier, found a way through with his shot, the mood of the Aberdeen supporters was once more turned upside down.

"We were delighted to get the draw in the end," said Shankland. "We looked out of it at the end, but I managed to get two assists. The manager sent me on and told me to do what I could. He said 'you have got your minutes on the pitch so go and do what you can'. You never give up in a game and there were still a lot of minutes to go. Ten minutes is enough to score two goals as we showed. We all believed."

McInnes, while always refusing to be drawn on whether his side might be considered serious title contenders, reflected that the draw "might prove to be an important point for us".

It was a statement that was as close as we've heard from anyone at Aberdeen that they do, indeed, believe they are capable of unseating Celtic, though a home win against Motherwell on Wednesday night would put the champions, currently with two games in hand and two points behind, back in pole position.