Danny Cadamarteri stars on his league debut for Dundee United

Dundee United 2 Heart of Midlothian 0
Frank Gilfeather

Danny Cadamarteri celebrated his competitive debut in Scottish football with two goals at either end of the 90 minutes as Dundee United started their Clydesdale Bank Premier league campaign with a convincing victory at Tannadice last night.

Heart of Midlothian, their opponents, fly out to Zagreb on European duty today still licking their wounds as well as a number of sore bones and muscles as they fell to in this bruising encounter at Tannadice last night which saw Michael Stewart, their captain, sent off early in the second half following a second yellow card.

But it was Cadamarteri, previously at Huddersfield Town, who took the plaudits with an early penalty goal and a second six minutes from time as he slid the ball under Marian Kello, the Hearts goalkeeper, as United mugged their opponents on the counter-attack.

The Tynecastle side do not have their troubles to seek, what with injuries to key players such as Calum Elliot and Andy Driver, not to say the suspension of Marius Zaliukas, the influential if sometimes harem-scarem centre back.

They also had four players making their debuts, which made it understandable that they displayed a nervousness in their play.

Eggert Jonsson is no newcomer to the Edinburgh club, yet his behaviour when Danny Swanson, the United playmaker, skipped towards him on the edge of the penalty area, showed an uncharacteristic jitteriness and when he stuck out a foot and the midfield player went down, albeit only inches inside the box, a penalty kick was awarded with only three minutes gone.

Cadamarteri’s fiercely-struck shot was too much for Kello as the home side raced to an early lead but had Steve Conroy, the referee, displayed a little consistency 15 minutes later, he would have awarded a second penalty after Dawid Kucharski’s clumsy challenge on the former Everton striker.

Still, there was no lack of diligence from the Edinburgh side. Ruben Palazuelos did well with a half volley while Obua caused troubled down the left flank and came close to finding the net late in the first half.

Laszlo would not, however, have been overimpressed by his side’s lack of cohesion and his call for an early second-half revival would not have gone unheeded.

Obua’s low, angular shot within the opening minutes of the second hald offered the visiting supporters hope while the Tannadice faithful were delighted with the one-handed stop by Nicky Weaver.

But while United bemoaned a glaring miss from David Goodwillie, the young striker who sliced his close-range shot wide of the target, their task was made easier in the 52nd minute when Stewart, the Hearts captain, who had been booked for an overzealous tackle on Swanson in the first half, pole-axed Scott Robertson and was sent to the dressing room with a second yellow card.

For all their physical misdemeanours, Hearts played some attractive passing football, though the cutting edge they sought eluded them, although the referee saw fit to flash two more yellow cards to their players — Ian Black and Suso Santana, and to Swanson, as tempers flared midway through the second half in an on-field skirmish.

As time ticked down, a Hearts attack was transformed in seconds into a meaningful move for the home side which brought them their second goal.

Morgaro Gomis took the ball down in his own area before allowing Prince Buaben to make the decisive long pass to Cadamarteri, who still had much to do. Racing in on goal, the stocky striker fired the ball past the advancing Kello to leave Csaba Laszlo with much to think about as he tries to lift his side for tomorrow night’s Europa League qualifier against Dynamo Zagreb.

Dundee United (4-4-2) N Weaver; M Kovacevic (sub: S Dillon, 80min), A Webster, D Dods, P Dixon; P Buaben, M Gomis, D Swanson (sub: C Conway, 73), S Robertson; D Cadamarteri (sub: A Shala, 86), D Goodwillie. Substitutes not used: S Banks, J Myrie-Williams, D Robertson, G Kenneth. Booked: Webster, Kovacevic, Swanson.
Heart of Midlothian (4-4-2) M Kello; E Jonsson, D Kucharski, J Gonçalves; S Santana, M Stewart, R Palazuelos, D Obua; D Witteveen (sub: I Black, 55), C Nadé (sub: A Novikovas, 78). Substitutes not used: J Balogh, G Glen, J Stewart, M Park, C Thomson. Booked: Obua, M Stewart, Santana, Black. Sent off: M Stewart.
Referee S Conroy.

Taken from timesonline.co.uk