Dundee United’s Hartley hoodoo continued this afternoon, after the midfielder returned to the Hearts starting line-up and scored against United for the 4th consecutive match between the two sides.
Hartley capitalised on a controversial penalty award by referee Charlie Richmond in the 55th minute, when he judged that Stuart Duff had used an arm inside the box – much to the protests of the Dundee United players.
The 30-year-old has now scored 3 penalties in the last 3 matches against United, and it was another well struck spot kick into the bottom-right hand corner that stole all 3 points for the visitors, putting them into a 1-0 lead after 10minutes of the 2nd half.
Craig Levein made 4 changes to the United side which beat Motherwell 3-2 at Fir Park, with defender Steven Robb replacing the suspended Christian Kalvenes and David Goodwillie in for the Noel Hunt who is out for several weeks with an ankle injury.
Alan Archibald & David McCracken were also dropped from the starting line-up, with Garry Kenneth returning to the team along with Stuart Duff.
Although, it was the Hearts side that stole most of the pre-match headlines, after it was announced that goalkeeper Craig Gordon was being dropped to the bench because of the flu – with many Hearts supporters left wondering whether Romanov was punishing the Scottish keeper for his part in Steven Pressley’s outburst against the club’s owner last month.
Hearts manager Valdas Ivanauskas made a total of 6 changes to the side which was beaten 1-0 by Aberdeen at Tynecastle, with Nerijus Barasa, Craig Gordon, Ibrahim Tall, Jose Goncalves, Neil McCann & Edgaras Jankauskas all dropped for the team – replaced by Steven Banks, Paul Hartley, Andrew Driver, Christophe Berra, Michal Pospisil & Robbie Neilson.
Dundee United have won all of their last 4 home matches since the arrival of Craig Levein at the start of November, and would have won 5 in-a-row if it wasn’t for the crossbar and an inspired performance from the Hearts goalkeeper.
Click here for full match report
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You know what they say – if you are having a bad time of it and need to get your career back on track, then Dundee United will always be there to let you score the headline grabbing winner!
Could be worse. Your skipper could start, erm, using his head in injury time, shall we say…
Good old Neil Lennon. Am I right in saying everyone was saying how calm a person he has been lately. Then he squares up to a teammate and now this. hahaha.
If it would stop Hartley scoring against us, Id pay Lennon to have a chat with him on Uniteds behalf 🙂
But will he still be at Tynecastle in January. And are we just discussing Paul Hartley so we can ignore the fact we lost at home 😉 I’d love to say that with a bit more confidence we would have won, but there should be enough of that now and especially against Hearts. Samuel really should have given us the lead, but didn’t, and my main worry (losing is acceptable, just about) is just how injured Steven Robb is 🙁 Others may have their doubts, but I think he’s the one who could go far for us.
Just relax in the thought of Hartley playing for Southampton or the like in a few weeks… 🙂
The info I have is that he’ll be away in January, almost certainly down South. So Southampton might not be a bad shout, ForeverHoop.
What is it like to support Hearts at the moment? Do you just look for good points or are you waiting for Romanov to leave. Must be tough (and no, I’m not on the wind up). The way it’s going, when he does go, there’ll be nobody left to play for you!
Don’t feel too bad for him. He’ll be on more cash down south…
There are still daft rumours going around that Hartley will end up at Parkhead alone with Falkirk’s Alan Gow. Surely not?!? And true, he’ll be on more cash down south but it’s not on. It’s like being banished against your will!
There are still daft rumours going around that Stokesy will still be at Falkirk in January! Oh well – you’re just one point below us now and looking like we’ll be swapping places soon. Jan 1 should be good – who’ll start the year off better? Depends if we’ve still got Stokes. At least Gow will be there, if only for a while :'(