Dundee celebrations prove to Gordon Hearts are back

IT was not the end result that Hearts craved, but for goalkeeper Craig Gordon Saturday’s frustrating 1-1 draw with Dundee confirmed that Robbie Neilson’s side have transformed themselves back into a “big team”.

Jason Cummings secured a point for the visitors with an 83rd-minute equaliser, leaving the Dark Blues to gleefully celebrate their plunder with their ecstatic fans at full time.

Hearts were left to rue not converting their domination of the ball into more goals, having led through John Souttar’s sumptuous firsthalf effort.

The home team’s reflections on a 20-point haul from 10 games and a place among those sides setting the pace at the Premiership summit at least tempered some of their disappointment at failing to close the match out.

Scotland goalkeeper Gordon insists the game also highlighted how Hearts are now regarded among their top-flight counterparts. “You look at the celebrations of Dundee at the end, they’re delighted with their point coming here,” Gordon said. “I said that to the boys in the changing room, we’ve transformed ourselves back into a big team. That’s credit to everybody with the effort they’ve put in this season, but with that comes responsibility to go out and do that every single week. Hopefully we can continue to do that and stay at the right end of the league.

“When we put ourselves in such a good position, we’ve dropped a few silly ones, we perhaps could have more and that’s the annoying thing.”

The confidence flowing through the Hearts team was evident as they bossed the game, even at one stage controlling 81 per cent of possession.

They did struggle at times to penetrate a disciplined Dundee defence and it took a stunning Souttar effort to break the deadlock in the 37th minute, the defender curling a sublime shot from 20 yards into the top corner.

Dundee improved after the break and Cummings took advantage of slack defending to nod home Cammy Kerr’s long throw.

As former Hibernian players, both Cummings and Leigh Griffiths were subjected to the usual taunts from Hearts fans. With regards to the latter, Cummings thought it went too far.