Late equaliser denies Hearts
From Hearts News at Tynecastle Stadium

It was a share of the spoils at Tynecastle after a stunning Morgaro Gomis strike late on cancelled out David Templeton's opener in a highly enteratining Clydesdale Bank Premier League encounter.

Lee Wallace broke down in the warm-up with an ankle injury, forcing Jim Jefferies to play Eggert Jonsson at left back and introduce Craig Thomson to the starting line up. Eggert Jonsson captained the side in the absence of both the Captain and Vice-Captain.

It was a scrappy start to the match and Hearts nearly lost Ismael Bouzid early after the defender took a blow to the cheekbone. Fortunately for Hearts he was able to continue and prevent further disruption to the defence. Dundee United suffered their own problems as well with Danny Swanson being forced off in the opening minutes with a hamstring injury.

Ryan Stevenson had the best chance of the match inside eleven minutes, after he found himself ahead of the United defence. His dinked shot towards goal looked to have opened the scoring but eventually thumped off the bar.

Just under a minute later Dundee Utd could have grabbed the opener through Jon Daly, but superb goalkeeping from Marian Kello prevented the striker on this occasion.

The Jambos took the lead on 30 Minutes after a superbly worked passage of play. Suso picked up the ball from a Dundee United corner and promptly rounded Gary Kenneth and raced towards goal. He then perfectly rolled the ball through the Arabs defence to David Templeton who rounded his man before picking his spot and drilling the ball home.

The Hearts players were desperate to add to their lead and everyone from defence right through to attack hussled the United players when they had possession of the ball. Craig Thomson had an opportunity to double the lead with one of his trademark free kicks, which just landed over the bar.

Dundee United threatened but couldn't turn their play into scoring opportunities and going into the break Hearts deserved to be a goal to the good.

Both sides started the second half lively and both could have scored in the early exchanges. Templeton came closest for Hearts with a ferocious shot that blasted wide of goal.

Darren Barr was standing up well to the task of marking David Goodwille, and showed exactly why Hearts were keen to get his signature with some superb defensive play when United had three players free in the Jambos box.

The game came alive in the 73rd minute when referee Craig Thomson awarded Dundee United a penalty after an alleged handball by Ismael Bouzid. Jon Daly stepped up to take the kick but found Marian Kello in fine form with a save of the highest quality. The Slovakian somehow plucked the ball from mid air and knocked it out of play, making sure the Jambos remained in the lead.

It was unfortunately a lead that didn't last and with just six minutes to go United substitute Morgaro Gomis scored a stunning equaliser. The ball came to the Frenchman about 20 yards form goal and he thundered his shot high into the top left hand corner. There are sometimes when you have to applaud individual talent and this was definitely one of those occasions.

Both teams tried to win it near the end but neither was successful in finding the winner. All in all a fantastic match to watch and Hearts can feel confident for the next matches after the International break.

Hearts: Kello; Barr, Bouzid, Jonsson, C Thomson; Suso (Obua 75), Black, Mrowiec, Templeton (Novikovas 79); Kyle, Stevenson. Subs not used: Balogh, McGowan, J Thomson, Kucharski, Robinson.

Dundee Utd: Pernis; Dillon, Douglas, Kenneth, Watson (Gomis 63); Conway, S Robertson (77 Shala), Swanson (D Robertson 4), Buaben; Goodwillie, Daly. Subs not used: Banks, Dixon, Dods, Casalinuovo.

Referee: Craig Thomson

Top man: Marian Kello

Hearts World