Dundee United 0 - 3 Hearts

They have a favourable run of games ahead, with Aberdeen and Motherwell at home, and an away fixture against bottom club Livingston upcoming.

George Burley, the Hearts coach, revealed afterwards he wanted to strengthen the side further and would talk with Vladimir Romanov, the biggest single shareholder in the club, later this week about "bringing in a couple of new players."

There is a feeling of optimism around Tynecastle just now to the extent that midfielder Paul Hartley said that "the Old Firm are there for the taking" in forthcoming matches, particularly at Tynecastle. Although his comments came in the euphoria of yet another win, some players would argue such comments usually find themselves pinned up on dressing-room walls and fire the opposition up.

These are heady times for Hearts supporters, who have bought into the "Romanov revolution" in their thousands. Around 5300 of them packed Tannadice yesterday to cheer on their team to a comprehensive victory. Around 11,000 season tickets have been sold and the "stadium full" signs will go up every other week if they keep up their winning run.

The Hearts starting XI, which included five Scotsman, did enough to see off an insipid Dundee United side. Six of the first-team squad have arrived at Tynecastle within the past month and it is testimony to Burley's skills that there hasn't been any major teething problems.

His latest signing, Greek full back Takis Fyssas, made his debut and the man who won Euro 2004 will be hoping every match goes as smoothly as this one. Two goals in the first 12minutes, from Steven Pressley and Roman Bednar, set Hearts on the road to victory and a late Rudi Skacel strike was the icing on the cake.

Burley was delighted at his side's performance and admitted there was an air of optimism about the club. "We have scored 11goals in three games and, to be honest, you don't expect to win your first three matches," said Burley. "We have good players here and a new belief and the supporters are coming out in their numbers. We are doing well but I will be happy if we get two new players in before the end of the month to strengthen further. I will be talking to Mr Romanov later in the week, as there are things I want to discuss with him."

From a United point of view, it was a disappointing result. They did have chances but for all the talk of the money spent on Lee Miller and Stevie Crawford, the front men were poor.

Miller did have the ball in the net after a magnificent sweeping move but was ruled offside. Overall, though, United didn't get any change from a Pressley- inspired Hearts defence.

The goals were simple affairs, with Pressley's opener helped by Miller, his marker, slipping just as Skacel put over a free kick from which the defender headed home. The second also involved Skacel, who put a crossfield chip into the path of Bednar, who fired into the net. It was fitting, then, that Skacel got the third, despite home protests that referee Charlie Richmond had ignored the linesman flagging for offside.

Overall, Hartley controlled events in the middle of the park for Hearts. The key to his good form is that he is receiving protection via Frenchman Julien Brellier, a terrier when it comes to tackling and breaking down moves. Edgar Jankauskas, the former Real Sociedad and Porto striker, led the line well but got an earful from Pressley and Andy Webster for not holding the ball up enough to take pressure off his defence.

Hearts are not the finished product but to record three straight wins is a magnificent achievement for a team supposedly in transition.

Eddie Thompson, though, who has poured over £2m of his own money into the Tannadice outfit, must be tearing his hair out at his team's inconsistency. Unless they start scoring goals, United will struggle this season.

It was indicative of how the hosts' day went that new signing David Fernández, who was standing on the touchline, had to receive three stitches to his face after Gordon Chisholm's shoe flew off when he kicked a ball back on to the pitch and hit the Spaniard in the face.

Chisholm admitted the bad start cost them the game. "You cannot lose two early goals like that against a team like Hearts," he said. "At this level that always leaves you a mountain to climb and no matter how hard we worked in the second half, we were always up against it."

On the incident that resulted in his new signing, Fernández, requiring treatment, he added: "I lost my temper and kicked a water bottle, but unfortunately my shoe came off and hit David. I apologised to him and there's no problem. I was caught up in the game because I thought some of the decisions the ref made were baffling."

Taken from the Herald