Aberdeen 0 - 0 Dunfermline Athletic

For the second time this season the Dons and the Pars fought out a scoreless draw and although both teams hit the woodwork twice in this one, the match was by Ebbe Skovdahl's own admission not one of the better ones he had seen.

The visitors had a couple of early opportunities and David Graham and Barry Nicholson could both have opened the scoring had Ryan Esson not been in such sparkling form.

With play settling down to a midfield battle, with neither team dominating, the Pars hit the post in the 34th minute when Steve Crawford's close effort, after good work from Jason Dair, was deflected on by Esson.

Not to be outdone, the Dons also found the upright sixty seconds later when a fierce Cato Guntveit drive crashed off Marco Ruitenbeek's right hand post.

Ebbe Skovdahl replaced Darren Mackie with Arild Stavrum at the interval and there was a definite improvement in the second half, although once again efforts off the bar, this time from David Moss and Robbie Winters, were the closest the two teams came to breaking the deadlock.

With a quarter of an hour left, Andy Dow came on for the limping Guntveit, as the Dons desperately tried to open their account.

In the end however, the chorus of boos from the 11,993 crowd which greeted the final whistle told its own story and Aberdeen will have to perform substantially better than this if a top six finish come the split is to be a reality.