Hearts skip beat but survive

Dundee United 1
Douglas 6

THIS was a match in which Hearts played their get-out-of-jail-free card. Late goals in the dying moments of each half gave them the advantage and then, with seconds to go and down to ten men after Rubens Palazuelos had felled David Robertson, Marian Kello saved a David Goodwillie penalty. After an inauspicious start, they ended the match 18 points clear in third place and just two points behind Rangers in second.

It was a win they didn't look like securing given they way they started, but one they will feel they ultimately merited.

The Tynecastle side were sluggish as they started the game, pinned back straight away by a Dundee United team that looked invigorated and determined to get back on track after their defeat to Celtic last weekend.

They had to get on with it in the absence of the injured Craig Conway, while Morgaro Gomis was still only fit enough for a place on the bench.

Hearts looked like they had managed to ready Lee Wallace, who had been doubtful with a bruised ankle, but he only lasted until the 34th minute, when another knock saw him replaced by Craig Thomson.

By then, though, the home side were already a goal down and looking like conceding more. Strange, given their miserly performances at Tynecastle of late. In their previous seven home league games, they had lost only one goal, yet United took just six minutes to get their opener.

Barry Douglas reacted best to a Goodwillie cross and, taking a deflection off a Hearts defender, the ball flew past the helpless Kello.

So early in the contest and it was the second time Peter Houston's side had found the net. The first had been in the third minute when Goodwillie bundled in, but his joy was short-lived, the officials clocking the fact the striker had used his arm.

That should have given Hearts the shake they needed but it didn't. On a day when the fluency and the solidity which have been useful allies to the spirit they have cultivated were notable by their absence, they looked dishevelled and the tempo of United's direct early attacks unsettled them.

It was not as the stats would have suggested. After all, while United have four games in hand on yesterday's hosts, they still went into the game trailing them by 21 points. And, while Houston's men have lost only once in nine SPL outings, they have won only two of them. Hearts, by contrast, are well ahead of fourth-placed Kilmarnock.

But this was not the kind of performance Hearts had been serving up recently.

United could have added to their tally when Douglas combined with Goodwillie but his effort was straight at Kello.

Garry Kenneth then got the better of his former centre-back partner Andy Webster to power a header just wide. In between, Suso Santana had forced a save from Dusan Pernis, who kept the ball out with his foot, and minutes later he made another vital intervention, saving Kenneth's blushes after the defender was caught in possession and Rudi Skacel's effort took a tricky deflection.

Hearts may have been lacking in certain areas but the never-say-die attitude was still there. Kenneth had been forced off with a knee injury and as United tried to bed in Timothy Van der Meulen alongside Sean Dillon in the centre of their defence, Hearts took advantage.

In time added on at the end of the first half, Ian Black played in Stephen Elliott and his shot was spilled by Pernis but Skacel was sharpest in on the loose ball, prodding it home.

It was a blow to United, who had to withstand another couple of searching moments before the interval and the assumption was that Hearts would up their game in the second half. They threw on David Templeton in place of David Obua and he did lift the mood and offer some creativity and he was aided and abetted in that role later on when Andrew Driver joined the fray in the 73rd minute. At that stage Hearts were trying to find a way through, but despite the makeshift nature of the United defence, they were not making life easy, and the guests were still posing a decent threat on the break.

Driver had a triple opportunity, Pernis and Dillon taking it in turns to foil him in quick succession but then came the corner which gave Hearts the three points. Scoring his first goal of the season, captain Marius Zaliukas bulleted home his header from Thomson's delivery and that, everyone assumed, would be that.

But David Robertson broke and charged into the Hearts box. Palazuelos was red-carded for bringing him down. Goodwillie took the penalty, but it was too straight and allowed Kello to block. That was more than three minutes into injury time and finally Hearts could breathe a sigh of relief.

HEARTS
Kello
Jonsson
Webster
Zaliukas
Wallace (34)
Santana (73)
Black
Palazuelos
Obua(46)
Skacel
Elliott

Subs used
Thomson (34)
Templeton (46)
Driver (73)

MAN OF THE MATCH
Marius Zaliukas (Hearts)

Marshalled David Goodwillie well before heading home the winner.

TALKING POINT
Garry Kenneth left Tynecastle on crutches with a strained medial ligament.

Referee: C Murray. Attendance: 15,473

DUNDEE UTD
Pernis
Watson
Dillon
Kenneth (43)
Dixon
Russell (79)
D Robertson
Buaben
S Robertson (89)
Douglas
Goodwillie

Subs used
Van der Meulen (43)
Swanson (79)
Shala (89)

Taken from the Scotsman