Neilson hails grafters as Hearts grind it out

WHEN a match results in one team going third and the other falling to the bottom of the league, you might expect there to have been a gulf in class. Not so here. Hearts had the bulk of the pressure, and deserved to win because they turned that pressure into two late goals, but Dundee hit the woodwork four times and on another day might have left Edinburgh with a point.

Their hopes of doing so were intact for much of the match, as they succeeded in frustrating the home side. In the end, though, a couple of substitutions by Robbie Neilson made the difference, as Robbie Muirhead came off the bench to lay on the opener for Callum Paterson 20 minutes from time before another substitute, Bjorn Johnsen, wrapped up the points with his first goal for the club.

Not that Neilson was willing to accept the credit for the breakthrough, or to give it to the subs. “The majority of teams will come and sit in,” the Hearts coach said. “You get the first 60, 70 minutes and it’s really hard to break them down. Conor [Sammon], Tony [Watt], Arnaud [Djoum] and Don [Cowie] do all the hard work at times, and then you bring the subs on and they steal the glory. The ones before that are the ones that do all the work.”

Hearts created several good openings in the first quarter of an hour, the closest to a goal coming when Paterson shot past the post after running into the box unopposed. Dundee were not without their own opportunities to open the scoring, notably after Alim Ozturk was booked on the edge of his own area. Tom Hateley took the resultant free-kick, and although his effort was ideally placed to elude Hearts goalkeeper Jack Hamilton, it just cleared the crossbar.

By the time Paterson went wide with a 20-yard shot, the game had come to resemble Hearts’ previous home outing, the goalless draw against Ross County. On that occasion, too, Neilson’s team were superior in most departments but became increasingly frustrated by a resolute defence.

Watt, Sammon and Paterson all had further chances before half-time as Hearts stayed on top, but the second half began with Dundee in the ascendancy. A Hateley shot came back off the post, a Faissal El Bakhtaoui shot was turned behind by Hamilton, and a Kostadin Gadzhalov header came back off the bar during an opening spell in which Hearts faded from the game. Next, Yordi Teijsse should at least have been on target when through on goal, but screwed his shot woefully wide.

Neilson responded to his team’s drop in standards by replacing Watt with Muirhead, and the switch soon paid off. McGowan gave away a free-kick 25 yards out on the left, and Paterson leapt highest to head Muirhead’s angled delivery into the net.

Djoum had a couple of chances to make the points safe, one coming from an excellent dribble. A misdirected header from Teijsse five minutes from time reminded Hearts that they had not made the points safe, but with two minutes left they ensured the win when Johnsen turned in a low cross from Jamie Walker.

While Hearts just about merited the points, Dundee manager Paul Hartley took encouragement from the number of chances his team had made. “I felt it was a really terrific performance,” he said. “We hit the woodwork four times – we just had to take our chances.

“If the players keep performing, things will turn around.”

The majority of teams will come and sit in. The first 60, 70 minutes it’s hard to break them down