Dundee 1 Hearts 0

The Dundee boss was always confident his side could beat Hearts and help their chances of staying up.

So he accused Hibs of ‘chucking’ the SPL earlier this week in a bid to fire their players up ahead of their game against St Mirren.

And Bomber’s plan worked perfectly as Ryan Conroy’s long range free-kick ensured the Dark Blues beat Hearts — and a Leigh Griffiths double stopped a Saints win at Easter Road.

Now they trail Danny Lennon’s side by EIGHT points with three games left to play.

And if Brown can keep on motivating sides like this who knows what could happen?

He landed the Dundee job on a permanent basis on Friday on the back of three wins in eight games.

But he knew all that would mean NOTHING if they couldn’t beat the Jambos.

And at the same time they knew even that wouldn’t be enough if St Mirren beat Hibs.

To make matters worse they were without inspirational playmaker Gary Harkins.

That meant Carl Finnigan started up front up against Andy Webster and Dylan McGowan.

McGowan was included because Danny Wilson also missed out through injury.

Hearts went into the game having won twice in a row for the first time this season.

And they immediately put Brown’s men under pressure in the opening few minutes. Steve Simonsen did well to beat John Sutton to a Kevin McHattie cross in the second minute.

The keeper then pulled off an even better save from a Jamie Hamill free-kick.

And having survived a nervy start, Brown’s men slowly started to come into the game.

In the 18th minute Webster was booked for a needless foul on Finnigan. The Hearts defender was initially too casual on the ball and was dispossessed by the striker.

He reacted by hauling Finnigan to the ground, giving ref Beaton an easy decision to make.

And his actions would go on to cost his side dearly less than ten minutes later.

Kyle Benedictus took the free-kick from fully 30 yards and forced Jamie MacDonald into a fine save.

A minute later John Baird was then inches away from turning home a Kevin McBride cross. Lewis Toshney was then given a talking to by ref Beaton after a foul on Jamie Walker.

And in the 27th minute the ref was involved again as Hearts were reduced to ten men.

Again Webster’s decision-making was questionable as he went for a high ball in the centre circle, clattering into the back of Finnigan.It was a careless challenge and both men required treatment before they could continue.

And when Webster got back to his feet he was correctly shown a second yellow card by Beaton.

That gave Dundee over an hour against ten men to go on and try to win the game.

They immediately forced back-to-back corners with Toshney firing over. So Jambos boss Locke replaced Michael Ngoo with Mehdi Taouil and moved Darren Barr back to centre-half.

As Dundee pushed forward news of Leigh Griffiths’ opener for Hibs boosted their spirits even further.

Both sides made changes at the break with Brown sending on Conroy for Lockwood and Dale Carrick replacing Walker.

And Conroy was immediately involved. His corner picked out Brian Easton unmarked six yards out — but his header smacked back off the underside of the bar.

But for all of the ball they now had Dundee were struggling to do enough with it.

And they were almost caught out on the break when Carrick shot wide of Simonsen’s goal. So Brown turned to Colin Nish and Nicky Riley with just under half an hour to go. At the same time news filtered through of Esmael Goncalves’ leveller at Easter Road.

Hamill was booked in the 65th minute for a foul on Conroy as Hibs moved back in front. And a minute later Riley fired a superb effort just inches past MacDonald’s left hand post.

The Dark Blues were getting closer and closer.

And with ten minutes to go they got the goal they so badly wanted.

Taouil was penalised for a foul on Kevin McBride 30 yards out.

Conroy caught it perfectly with a low effort that appeared to take a deflection on its way in.

The goal sparked wild scenes of celebration all around Dens Park.

Their joy was short lived when it became clear St Mirren were leading at Easter Road. But with four minutes left they were celebrating once more thanks to Griffiths’ leveller for Hibs.

The drama continued when Riley was sent off after an off-the-ball clash with McHattie.

But even that failed to put a dampener on the Dark Blues’ celebrations.

And now Brown’s men live to fight another week.