Dundee Utd 0-1 Hearts
Mixu Paatelainen suffered defeat in his first match as Dundee United manager as Hearts won 1-0 at Tannadice.
Juanma Delgado's 16th-minute penalty proved enough to send Hearts back to third spot in the Ladbrokes Premiership and keep United four points adrift at the bottom.
Hearts defended well to seal their first win in six league games, but United lacked creativity and again looked vulnerable at the back.
Paatelainen instigated a tactical switch by playing two up front, but United failed to score at Tannadice for the first time since their opening day defeat by Aberdeen.
Darko Bodul and Adam Taggart partnered Billy McKay in each half, but United struggled to make an impact going forward.
They were chasing the game from early on, although Hearts had dominated the opening stages anyway.
The breakthrough came when Sam Nicholson brought down a diagonal ball and cut inside John Souttar. Blair Spittal tracked back to help out his right-back, but only succeeded in barging over the Hearts wide man and Kevin Clancy pointed to the spot.
United goalkeeper Luis Zwick guessed right, but Juanma tucked the penalty into the bottom corner.
Hearts continued to look the more threatening side and Danny Swanson was causing problems on the right.
The former United midfielder had a powerful strike held after Mark Durnan lost out to Osman Sow and then sent a dipping 30-yard free-kick that Zwick tipped over.
Another former United player, Prince Buaben, took a risk by pushing Ryan McGowan in the face just as he was about to be booked for a foul on John Rankin.
United only threatened with high balls into the box in the first half and Hearts dealt with everything.
The visitors continued to defend well after the break and create problems on the break. One counter-attack saw Sow crudely stopped by McGowan and moments later he got in behind Durnan again and cut back for Juanma, whose shot was blocked by Zwick.
United showed plenty of effort but little guile. Aaron Kuhl shot just over from an unusual free-kick which saw him flick the ball up and lob it towards goal.
Hearts lost two men to injury at the same time - Juwon Oshaniwa and Miguel Pallardo limped off for Morgaro Gomis and Liam Smith in the 70th minute.
But they maintained their lead through some stout defending with Neil Alexander's only real saves coming when he held McKay's shot on the turn and Aidan Connolly's free-kick.
And Spittal's day went from bad to worse when he was sent off in injury-time for another foul on Nicholson, having been booked moments earlier for pulling back Gomis.