United halt the Hearts revival

HEARTS 1 Kingston 90
DUNDEE UTD 3 Robertson, 14, 25, Robson 87

SO MUCH for the Hearts resurgence. A run of six wins from seven games shuddered to a halt at Tynecastle yesterday. It was 4-0 the last time Dundee United visited Gorgie, and almost the same again yesterday, Hearts' misery compounded three minutes from the end when a Lee Wilkie header appeared goal-bound until Calum Elliot, on the line, prevented it with his arm. Elliot was shown a red card and Barry Robson converted the penalty.

In injury time there was a second dismissal, for United goalkeeper Grzegorz Szamotulski, who was last man when he clattered into Mauricio Pinilla just outside the box. Laryea Kingston scored with the resulting free kick but, as consolation goals go, it provided none. This was an emphatic defeat for Hearts, even if it doesn't provoke the soul searching and introspection that followed the last one.

Last time Stephen Frail admitted to a "lack of unity" in the Hearts' dressing room, but this time his remarks were more prosaic. "We needed a crappy goal to kick start us," he shrugged - but there was truth in the observation.

Having been the better of the two sides in the first half, they began the second two down and chasing the game. And they know, better than anyone, how difficult it can break down a side managed by Craig Levein, who admitted to being "thrilled" by the outcome. "Very rarely do you get a game where all the work you've done during the week, and the things you've practised, work on the day."

United were resolute. Their midfield did a power of work, harrying the Hearts players and forcing them into mistakes. The atmosphere inside Tynecastle fell flat as the second half wore on. United snuffed the life out of the game. "We killed Hearts a bit," said Levein. "They couldn't get the grandstand finish they were looking for."

As if trying to atone for last time, Hearts couldn't have made a more positive start. They were bright, bubbling with energy and fluid in moving the ball forward and attacking. It quickly got the crowd on their side -

unfulfilled anticipation backfired when things began to go awry - but in the early stages it was all Hearts. United were anonymous, best summed up by Robson - architect of his side's victory on their last visit to Tynecastle, but guilty here of potentially costly mistakes.

His first was a pass to Christian Kalvanes that was intercepted by Laryea Kingston, who fired a dangerous ball across the face of the goal, came after just two minutes. The Hearts fans could smell blood, especially when, three minutes later, Christian Nade strode forward into the kind of space that Hearts, at this stage, were easily exploiting.

Then, with 14 minutes on the clock, a goal for United, from absolutely nothing. Willo Flood, wide on the left, played the ball into the box for Jordan Robertson, and, with his back to goal, the striker controlled it, then half-turned and hooked it past Stevie Banks in the Hearts goal.

Hearts responded positively, but the temperature inside Tynecastle rose as decisions went against them. The strangest was two minutes after the goal when Kingston was booked for taking a free kick too early. But the howls of protest from home fans reached a crescendo after 23 minutes when Kingston, tangling with Kalvenes in the penalty box, crumpled to the turf.

It wasn't the strongest penalty claim, but the indignation owed more to it being merely the latest in a series of decisions by referee Craig Thomson which were - euphemistically speaking - challenged by the home crowd.

But it wasn't the referee's fault that Hearts conceded a second goal after 25 minutes. It was Robertson again, poking the ball into the net from deep inside a crowded box. It came from a Kalvenes free kick headed on to him by Wilkie.

Hearts continued to play decent football.

Their best chance of the half came after 30 minutes, after another mistake by Robson, this time a pass back that left Szamotulski with little option but to pick it up. A free kick deep inside the box saw Kingston square the ball to Michael Stewart, whose shot bulleted through the cluster of bodies before being well stopped by Szamotulski.

Taken from the Scotsman