Hearts' swift riposte sinks Dundee

STUART BATHGATE AT DENS PARK

Dundee 1 McLean (80)
Hearts 2 De Vries (46), Maybury (83)

A LATE strike from Alan Maybury gave Hearts the three points last night after Dundee looked to have snatched a draw. Craig Levein’s side were still well short of their form, especially during a dreadful first half, but they continue to do just enough to keep ahead of their rivals for third place, this win having restored a three-point lead over fourth-placed Dunfermline.

For Dundee, the main benefit to be derived was that, with Partick Thistle having lost at the weekend, at the end of the night they still held the nine-point advantage over the bottom club that they had at the beginning. Their heads did not go down at any time, and in Garry Brady they had the most inventive player on the pitch, but in the end they were undone by a more experienced side.

Just over a month had elapsed since the same teams’ previous meeting at Dens Park, a CIS Cup game which Dundee won 1-0 in extra time. Emotions were running high that evening, the first occasion Dundee had played at home since being forced into administration. Last night, by contrast, with the acuteness of the crisis having abated somewhat, there was very much a feeling of business as usual at the club.

Dundee have not won in the league since October, but Jim Duffy’s makeshift band have still managed to play with a certain defiant spirit, and they started brightly enough against a Hearts side who welcomed back Steven Pressley from injury and Maybury from suspension. Levein’s side, though eight places higher up the table, have been inconsistent by their own standards. That showed in the disjointedness with which they played in the opening stages, though they did create the first double chance of the match when in quick succession Paul Hartley and Andy Kirk had shots blocked.

The visitors might have been further discomfited by a leg injury to Phil Stamp which forced Levein to bring Robert Sloan on in his place after just 12 minutes had been played, but instead they began to play with more purpose, gradually forcing their way higher up the park.

Yet this was how the cup match had begun, with Hearts being the better side and Dundee showing more hunger: the longer that game went on without a goal, the more the home team’s hopes of getting a result grew, and the worry from Hearts’ point of view was that such a scenario would be played out again. In short, the match was crying out for someone - anyone - to impose his authority on proceedings. Stamp is normally one player with the talent to do so, but with him out and Scott Severin still unfit, the Hearts midfield was left looking a touch lightweight.

Patrick Kisnorbo, playing at left-back, put in a power of work to get up and down his flank and supply crosses several times in the opening half-hour, but none of them posed a real danger to the Dundee defence.

Having found no joy at close range, Hearts attempted to strike from further out in the person of Jean-Louis Valois, but the Frenchman’s 25-yard shot from a Kirk knockdown sailed a foot or two over Julian Speroni’s crossbar. Although generally on the back foot, Dundee were not entirely non-existent as an attacking force, and a quick break from midfield almost put Duncan McLean through on goal, only for a sliding tackle from Maybury to clear the ball for a corner.

Mark Fotheringham did have an opportunity to break the deadlock from a Nacho Novo cutback, but Pressley got in a block, showing that both defences were at least maintaining their concentration at a time when the crowd were beginning to lose theirs.

Within a minute of the restart, Hearts gave the match a completely different complexion with a goal of stunning simplicity. Picking up a loose ball 30 yards out in a central position, Kirk sent a well-weighted pass out to Maybury on the left wing. The Irishman’s looping cross was met on the six-yard line was met by Mark de Vries, whose downward header gave Speroni no chance.

The pace of the game picked up immediately as Dundee chased the equaliser and Hearts sought the second goal which would make the points safe. With just over an hour played they were given a timely reminder that one goal might not be enough, when a scramble following a corner saw Neilson block a McLean shot.

At the other end, moments later, Kisnorbo glanced a header just past from a Sloan corner. A match which had been so soporific then threatened to overheat as Lee Wilkie was booked for a challenge on Pressley. Before the action could resume, De Vries was also yellow-carded, for having words with the Dundee defender. Finesse may have been in short supply, but at least the teams were now showing some appetite for the fray.

With 11 minutes left, McLean was given another chance, and this time made it count.

As four or five men converged on a teasing ball into the box, Gordon could only push it out towards the fair-haired youngster, whose firm strike found the net from 20 yards.

As the home fans urged their team to go for the win, Hearts retook the lead. A Sloan cutback found Maybury, whose shot was just as accurate as McLean’s.

Dundee kept competing, and if they had won a point it would not have been the greatest injustice. Hearts, however, did just enough to keep their noses in front, and the last chance fell to substitute Dennis Wyness, whose header spiralled just past Speroni’s right post.

Dundee: Speroni, Smith, Mackay, Wilkie, Hernandez, Novo, Sancho, Jablonski (Robb 67), Brady, McLean (Milne 84), Fotheringham. Subs: Soutar, Macdonald, Cameron.

Hearts: Gordon, Maybury, Webster, Pressley, Kisnorbo, Stamp (Sloan 12), MacFarlane, Hartley, Valois (Neilson 52), Kirk (Wyness 75), De Vries. Subs: Moilanen, Weir.

Referee: C Thomson. Attendance: 6,387

Taken from the Scotsman