Hearts 4 - 0 Dundee United

A hitherto hesitant season for Hearts is starting to gain an impressive momentum. Their third victory in as many league games maintains their pursuit of Celtic at the top of the Bank of Scotland Premierleague.

They may not have a team equipped for European competition just yet – as proved over two legs against Sparta Prague – but they do have a squad which is steadily growing in confidence and ambition.
The front pairing of Andrius Velicka and Juho Makela may not set pulses racing among the Hearts supporters, but both helped themselves to a goal apiece yesterday and were worthwhile contributors throughout. So, too, was Mirsad Beslija, the club's record signing, who has proved up until now to be the ultimate mystery wrapped up in an enigma encased by a riddle.
The winger has much to prove to convince of his quality, but finally looks to have found form, contributing a marvellous assist for his side's second goal yesterday and winning the penalty for the third.

"You saw he has quality," said Valdas Ivanauskas, the Hearts head coach, of Beslija. "Mirsad is an international player and this was his best game for Hearts today."
Paul Hartley, who scored his side's third from the penalty spot, spoke of his pleasure that Beslija is finally starting to justify the club record fee shelled out for his services in January.
"I'm really pleased for Mirsad," he said. "He's had a really hard time and not played an awful lot. Today, he looked like an £850,000 player. He's not had a chance to play here and today he was fantastic.

"I'll say one thing about him, he always comes in with a smile on his face every morning. You wouldn't think he hadn't played a lot. Performances like that will give him confidence."
A winning mentality is also emerging. This, Hearts' third straight league win, is an impressive response to the disappointing 1-0 reverse to St Mirren at the start of September. "I think we're really starting to get the bit between our teeth now," added Hartley. "That's 12 goals in our last five games and one conceded, so we're going well."

In fact, this scoreline belied an early spell of dominance from the visitors, who created several chances and had the ball in the net in the 27th minute through Noel Hunt, who was contentiously flagged as offside. There was some debate as to whether it was the United striker, or team-mate Stuart Duff whose initial effort was saved by Craig Gordon, who had been flagged.
"I've heard a statement saying that he [the referee] gave it for the first one, but the linesman was just too late in putting his flag up," said an aggrieved Craig Brewster.

Hunt earlier sent an early shot across the home side's bows when he popped up unchecked after nine minutes. The lone striker took advantage of David Proctor's knockdown to whip in a bouncing shot, though Gordon managed to get an elbow to it and his defence smothered the rebound.
As Hearts continued to huff and puff, United carved out an even better chance midway through the half. Craig Conway's deep cross from the right found Duff unmarked and his firm, diving header came back off the bar.

The visitors were then denied a deserved opener in 27 minutes. Christian Kalvenes' deep cross found Duff, who directed his header on target, but Gordon spread himself to block. The rebound was tapped home by Hunt, but his celebrations were halted by the linesman's flag.
It was a debatable decision and one which was fiercely contested by Hunt, who continued arguing with referee Eddie Smith as he traipsed off at half time.
The opener arrived soon after Hunt's disallowed goal, though it was a minor travesty that it occurred at the other end. Saulius Mikoliunas was the architect, threading a neat ball through the inside left channel for a galloping Velicka. The Lithuanian zipped in a fierce, low drive which deflected off the despairing boot of Alan Archibald and into the net.

Suddenly, the home side had seized command of proceedings and Beslija took centre stage, whipping in a curling shot which was superbly turned away by Derek Stillie.
Beslija was not to be denied, though, and created Hearts' second six minutes before the interval. His wonderful, dipping cross from the right arrived at the feet of Makela, who had the simple task of tapping home from a couple of yards.

Deividas Cesnauskis came on to replace Mikoliunas after the interval and rattled the bar with a thumping effort soon after. Barry Robson proved an intermittent threat for the visitors, but Hearts rarely looked liked losing control.
Their dominance was further manifested towards the end when Hartley converted from the spot after Archibald had dumped Beslija to the turf. Jamie Mole rounded off the scoring in the dying moments with a tap-in.

Taken from the Herald