Robbie Neilson vindicated as substitutes help fire Hearts to victory
Hearts boss Robbie Neilson was pleased to see his substitutions pay off with victory over Dundee, having come under fire from some home fans for his decision to replace Tony Watt.
With the score still goalless, a section of Hearts supporters booed Neilson's call to bring on Robbie Muirhead for fellow forward Watt in the 57th minute.
But the Neilson's decision was justified after Callum Paterson met Muirhead's free-kick delivery to give the hosts the lead in the 68th minute.
Another of Neilson's replacements Bjorn Johnsen, who replaced Conor Sammon, wrapped up a 2-0 victory with an 89th-minute strike.
The win moves the Gorgie outfit back up to third place above Rangers in the Premiership and Neilson hailed the contribution of the players who climbed off the bench.
He said: ''You have to make decisions, I felt we lost a foothold in the game with the way things were going. I felt we needed to get more balance with the way Dundee were playing and thankfully it worked. I thought Robbie Muirhead came on and gave us energy and gave us balance to get the result. That's football, everyone is here to make a decision on it, I've got opinions as well about teams. You have to accept it but I'm the one that has to make a decision on it. If I make the decision and we end up getting beat 2-0 then I would have had to take the flak. I thought Muirhead handled it really well for a young kid at 20, people sometimes forget his age because he's been about for a bit. He gave us that spark and I know he can do that.''
Dundee manager Paul Hartley felt his players should have left Tynecastle with something to show for their efforts after striking the frame of the goal four times.
After weathering the storm in the first half, Dundee went close after the break with Tom Hateley, who hit the bar and post, Kostadin Gadzhalov and Yordi Teijsse all seeing efforts come back off the woodwork.
The Tayside outfit have now slipped to the foot of the standings following a winless run that has stretched to eight games.
Hartley said: ''We don't want to be where we are in the table but if the players keep performing like that things will turn around. It's a fine line and we're just one result away. I felt it was a really terrific performance. We came here against a really strong team and hit the woodwork four times. It shows we're doing something right and we just have to take our chances. We have to be a bit more clinical because they were brilliant chances and we had others in the game.''