Hearts 1-0 Dundee United

Mar 30 2008 Rob Fairburn At Tynecastle

HEARTS turned on the style for watching Vladimir Romanov to keep their dreams of a top-six finish alive.

But captain Christophe Berra says they should be producing the goods without needing the inspiration of the Lithuanian owner in the director's box.

The Jambos skipper never put a foot wrong as they chalked up another clean-sheet against third-placed United who finished the game with nine men following two late red cards.

He snuffed out the threat of former Tynecastle favourite Mark De Vries and a first-half strike from Laryea Kingston was enough to clinch the victory and bring Hearts to within a point of sixthplaced Falkirk. Berra said: "The owner had a nice wee chat with us beforehand. But we should be playing like that even when he is not here.

"We have not had a great run of results against United recently so it was great to get a clean-sheet with Laryea nicking the goal to get the points.

"But I felt we could have scored more as we had some chances late on.

"I had played against Mark in training before but never in a match.

"He is a very big boy but I felt the whole back four played well and he did not really get a sniff at goal."

De Vries admitted he was impressed with Berra's progress, saying: "He has done well by establishing himself in the first team at Hearts, becoming captain and now a Scotland call-up."

United could easily have been a couple of goals up before Hearts broke the deadlock in the 26th minute.

Eggert Jonsson, who has just signed a contract extension, threaded a neat ball through to Kingston who had got goal-side of his marker, Gary Kenneth.

The Ghana international kept his composure as he homed in on goal before drilling a low shot into the bottom corner past the advancing Lukasz Zaluska for his fifth goal of the season. That should have been the cue for the home side to settle down.

"But their play continued to be disjointed and for the remainder of the first half there was a verbal running battle between caretaker boss Stevie Frail and striker Christian Nade who had gone from a trot to a virtual standstill.

As Kingston continued to ping in dangerous balls from the right, the home fans were frustrated to see no-one on the end of them with Nade languishing yards behind the play.

With the interval fast approaching, Hearts piled on the pressure for a second goal and thought they had it when Ruben Palazuelos' cross picked out Saulius Mikoliunas but his header from 10 yards out was straight at Zaluska who produced a clean catch.

But that was nothing compared to the miss by the Lithuanian shortly before the hour mark.

Kingston robbed Kenneth out on the touchline and went scurrying to the byeline. His low crosswas parried by keeper Zaluska but with the empty goal gaping, Mikoliunas skied his shot over the bar from eight yards and was left hanging his head in disbelief.

Moments earlier Kenneth had been booked for chopping down Kingston who needed treatment and that led to his eventual withdrawal in the 66th minute to be replaced by Ketutis Ivaskevicius.

But as Hearts were penned back, the visitors still lacked a penetrating edge to pierce their rock-solid rearguard in the shape of skipper Berra and Marius Zaliukas.

They were able to soak up anything United threw at them in the closing stages.

And the misery for Craig Levein's side was complete with two late red cards.

The first came when Nade was upended in the final minute by Kenneth who was heading for the tunnel before waiting for referee Eddie Smith to show him a second yellow. And Swanson, who had been booked soon after coming on as a sub, was also ordered off after being shown a straight red for a dangerous follow-through on Jonsson.

REF WATCH

EDDIE SMITH was too whistle happy early on but kept a strong grip on game.

No argument with red cards.

MATCH STATS

HEARTS vs DUNDEE UTD

3 SHOTS ON 3

5 SHOTS OFF 5

0 OFFSIDE 0

17 FOULS 15

5 CORNERS 5

2 BOOKINGS 4

Taken from the Sunday Mail