Dundee 1 Hearts 1

Jim Duffy will have to wait for his first victory as Dundee manager after his men drew 1-1 with Hearts at Dens Park.

Dundee dominated proceedings for long spells, but could not turn their good play into goals, allowing Hearts to sneak a first-half lead through Gary Wales.

To their credit, Dundee rallied and grabbed an equaliser through Fabian Caballero, but it was a series of glaring misses from Juan Sara that had the home supporters up in arms as they contemplated two points dropped.

Dundee dominated for much for much of the first half, but showed the problems that plagued Ivano Bonetti during his two years at the club have not gone now Duffy is back at the helm.

The home side enjoyed much possession and they created several decent chances, but all too often they would hesitate in front of goal and let Hearts off the hook.

One player who stood out for the Dees was summer signing Nacho Novo. He tormented the Hearts defence down the right-hand flank and was unlucky not to have scored his first goal for the club after only five minutes.

However, despite being one-on-one with Anti Niemi, the Spaniard was unable to direct his shot on target and watched in horror as the ball spun wide.

Dundee continued to press and it was another new signing, Jonay Hernandez, who almost provided for Sara. The former Real Madrid defender broke down the left and whipped in a cross to Sara.

Despite having watched the ball travel almost 20 yards, the Argentinian was unable to direct it towards goal and watched as it spun high over the crossbar.

After being under the cosh for much of the first half, it was Hearts who opened the scoring in the 33rd minute. Steven Boyack whipped in a free-kick from the right- and dropped the ball onto Gary Wales' head. The former Hamilton striker managed to deflect the ball towards goal and was delighted to see it loop over the head of Barry Smith.

The visitors dominated much of the early exchanges in the second half and were unlucky not to have doubled their lead through a Kevin McKenna header.

The Canadian rose above the Dundee defence and directed his header past Julian Speroni in goal, but looked on in horror as a defender appeared from nowhere to clear.

Dundee gradually came back into the match and equalised through Caballero in the 65th minute. The South American latched onto a superb pass from Gavin Rae and raced clear of the Hearts defence, before slotting the ball low past Niemi.

Sara was gifted another golden opportunity minutes later, but he was unable to hit the target from eight yards, much to the annoyance of his team-mates and the home fans.

The closing stages saw plenty of attacking endeavour, but little in the way of goalmouth action as the match petered out.

Teams:

Dundee: Speroni, Smith, Wilkie, MacKay, Hernandez Santos, Rae, Nemsadze, Mair, Caballero, Novo, Sara.

Subs Not Used: Langfield, Milne, Beith, Robb, Marrocco.

Goals: Caballero 65.

Hearts: Niemi, Pressley, McKenna, McCann, Maybury, Severin, Simmons, Valois (McMullan 83), Kirk (Twaddle 73), Wales (De Vries 69), Boyack.

Subs Not Used: McKenzie, Fox.

Booked: Boyack, Severin.

Goals: Wales 33.

Att: 7,705

Ref: D McDonald (Scotland).

Taken from sportinglife.com