Marvin Bartley said he “nearly had a heart attack” as he watched his Livingston side go two goals down inside five minutes against Dundee.
The hosts stormed into the lead thanks to a Simon Murray double but the visitors bravely battled back with Lewis Smith netting and Scott Pittman equalising before the break.
There was no further scoring in the second half with rock-bottom Livi holding on for a point to narrow the gap to Kilmarnock and St Mirren above them.
Bartley said: “I nearly had a heart attack after the start we made.
“I was in shock watching it. I didn’t see it coming. Credit to Dundee for the way they started the game but we were poor.
“The goals weren’t well-worked, they were avoidable from our point of view. We shouldn’t concede like that but that’s been our problem all season.
“You wonder if the players would be spooked but we showed good character once we calmed down. To bounce back and get to 2-2 and look a threat beyond that, I can only be proud of them.
“It’s a huge point for us because we are closer to the teams above us and we are moving in the right direction.
“Until it’s impossible to catch the teams above us, we will never give up.”
Dundee boss Steven Pressley admitted in hindsight he should have shuffled his pack after three tough games within the space of a week, including a Scottish Cup tie at Celtic Park that went to extra time.
The head coach said: “Even after the terrific start we made, I was never entirely comfortable. I thought we looked a little fatigued in our performance.
“An area we’ve been very good at has been against the ball, in our defending but we just looked a yard away in certain aspects of it, and also just in our focus at times. So it was a difficult afternoon.
“When I look at it, and maybe in reflection, we’ve played three games, and three really tough games within a week.
“The players have done so well but in hindsight, maybe, just maybe, I should have freshened things up today.
“I could see we looked a little fatigued in our performance so I was never entirely comfortable within the game because I could see the things that we normally do super effective, we weren’t quite doing to those standards today.
“But I will say this, considering the three games that they’ve had, they showed a strong mentality in the end. They did.
“They kept going, they kept persevering but we couldn’t quite get the result that we wanted.”
