3-1 Victory At Tynecastle

Dundee United have always struggled at 'Fortress' Tynecastle, with Hearts dominating both league and cup meetings between the two SPL sides.

Out of 83 matches against the Jambos, Dundee United have only left Edinburgh victorious on a pitiful 17 occasions..... that works out as only 1 win in every 5 visits to Tynecastle.

After a poor start to the campaign, Hearts now appear to have turned the corner and after an impressive 4-2 win over Rangers last month, they were aiming for a 4th consecutive victory this weekend.

However, manager Craig Levein had other ideas and inspired the visitors to a 3-1 win, but it wasn't all good news for Dundee United.

On loan Sheffield United striker Jordon Robertson scored a 14th minute opener, against the run of play, after defender Zaliukas failed to clear his lines.

Robertson gathered the ball, turned and fired a 12-yard left-foot effort past keeper Steve Banks and in off the post.

Dundee United have been notoriously difficult to score against this season, so especially after going 1-0 up, it was no surprise that Hearts struggled to find the equaliser.

It was 2-0 to Dundee United after 24 minutes, when Robertson blasted high into the back of the net from close range, after getting on to the end of a Lee Wilkie knock down.

Morgaro Gomis was fouled by Robbie Neilson on the left and the resultant free-kick was floated into the box by Christian Kalvenes, where Lee Wilkie was on hand to head the ball back across goal.

On the previous visit to Tynecastle, Craig Levein masterminded a shock 4-0 win and only 30minutes into the match, this could quite easily have gone the same way.

Hearts pushed forward in the 2nd half and Dundee United attempted to capitalise on the counter-attack, but it took a penalty kick from Barry Robson to completely kill the match off.

A corner kick from Barry Robson was predictably curled towards the tall defenders at the back post, with Lee Wilkie heading it towards goal.

Although, in a moment of madness, Calum Elliot appeared to punch the ball off the line and was immediately sent-off for his efforts.

Barry Robson fired the ball into the top left corner of the goal, to secure another important SPL win and all 3 points for Dundee United.

However, Dundee United suffered a late blow, as goalkeeper Grzegorz Szamotulski was sent off for a 2nd bookable offence deep into injury time, after jumping in to Mauricio Pinilla.

Laryea Kingston, who was lucky to still be on the pitch after mouthing off at the referee for almost the full 90minutes, scored a consolation goal from the resulting free-kick.

The red card means Szamotulski was miss next weekends match against Rangers at Tannadice, but it shouldn`t have even been a sending off, after the 1st yellow card was for a pass back in the 1st half.

The Dundee United players were incensed after referee Craig Thomson awarded an indirect free kick inside the United penalty area, after he wrongly judged Barry Robson had passed the ball back..... completely overlooking Heart`s Calum Elliot getting a touch on the ball.

Fortunately, Hearts couldn`t make anything of their resulting free-kick, at a time when United were only 1-0 up.

Although, losing Szamotulski for the Rangers match will be a huge blow for Craig Levein, after a largely successful afternoon which sees United now only 3 points off the top of the table.

Final score:
Hearts 1-3 Dundee United

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