As the fog was clearing over the Balmoral Stadium on Saturday afternoon, on the back of another Cove Rangers win, phones were being clutched and refreshed.
For a 20-minute spell Cove were League One winners. They were doing the business against Alloa Athletic, eventually running out 3-0 winners, while Dumbarton had fought back from two goals down to level against 10-man Airdrieonians.
But the Diamonds, as they have done all season, continued to take the fight to Cove with a dramatic late winner. They are making them earn this promotion if and when it comes.
Cove were slightly edgy in the first half against Alloa, perhaps aware of what could happen after this 90 minutes, but in the second they showed why they are in control of their own destiny.
Fraser Fyvie’s brace – he is now up to 13 for the season – and another for the irrepressible Harry Milne gave the scoreline a convincing look.
While there were ripples of joy around the Balmoral in the second half when news of Dumbarton’s equaliser circulated, Cove can do the business themselves next weekend. Regardless of what anyone else has to say.
“We’ve kept stressing to the players for the last 24 games to control our own destiny,” said manager Paul Hartley. “Take it game by game and keep winning.
“We’ve heard a lot of talk over the last few months but the players are just so focused. They keep doing their job.
“We’re 34 games down and if you’d said to us at the start of the season that we’d have an opportunity to win the league with two games to go, we’d have taken it.
“We’ve been in terrific form since the East Fife game in October but you’ve got to give Airdrie credit. They keep going. But we don’t rely on anybody else and just control what we can do.”
While not having regular updates on goings-on at the Excelsior Stadium, Hartley was able to gauge from the 1200-strong crowd how Airdrieonians were faring.
“You hear the crowd and you know something’s happening but that’s just part and parcel of the game,” he added.
“There’s nothing I can do about it. I can only control what we’re doing on the pitch. I can’t control anything that goes on around us.
“There’s still loads of football to play. I know how quickly it can turn if you’re not on your game.
“We’ll make the players are so focused and determined next week. We’re 17 games undefeated at home, which is an incredible record for this group.”
Cove had goalkeeper Stuart McKenzie to thank, with saves from Conor Sammon and Stefan Scougall in the first half and Mouhamed Niang and Ross MacIver in the second keeping their clean sheet intact.
Fyvie broke the deadlock with a well-timed run towards the near post, sticking out a foot and diverting Milne’s cross inside the far post.
His second showed his composure in front of goal, as Fyvie exchanged passes with Connor Scully and whipped the ball beyond goalkeeper Peter Morrison.
It would seem impossible to keep Milne out of the headlines at the moment and he duly delivered again. Substitute Jamie Masson centred and Milne climbed above the visiting defence to head home a third.
“He’s really good at that,” said Hartley. “He’s really advanced as a wing-back in the system we play just now. He’s good in the air and can get in at the back post.
“I was really pleased with that second-half performance. I thought we were terrific.”