Dundee United 0-1 Heart of Midlothian

Juanma celebrates opening the scoring for Hearts

Mixu Paatelainen's reign as Dundee United manager began with a hot-tempered defeat by Hearts, courtesy of Juanma's early penalty at Tannadice.

The Spaniard struck from the spot after Blair Spittal felled Sam Nicholson.

The home side finished the game with 10 men as Spittal was shown his second yellow card of the game in stoppage time for another foul on Nicholson.

It was Hearts' first league victory since August, taking Robbie Neilson's side into third place.

The only goal came after 16 minutes, as Nicholson collected the ball on the left wing and cut inside the area, eluding the challenge of John Souttar.

Spittal bundled him to the ground leaving referee Kevin Clancy no option but to point to the spot.

Striker Juanma stepped up and dispatched the ball low into the right-hand corner of Luis Zwick's net.

The home side felt they also had strong claims for a penalty midway through the half, when Hearts' scorer had a tug on the shirt of Ryan McGowan as he attempted to challenge for the ball, but the incident was missed by all of the officials.

Former United player Danny Swanson was proving to be a real thorn in the home defence.

He tested Zwick with a rasping free-kick from 25 yards that the United keeper tipped over the crossbar, before being set-up by Osman Sow, his strike on this occasion smothered by Zwick at the second attempt.

Blair Spittal is dismissed by referee Kevin Clancy after tripping Sam Nicholson

There were very few chances in the second half but the busiest man inside Tannadice was referee Clancy.

In all he showed seven yellow cards during the afternoon in a match that threatened to boil over.

A number of Hearts players were struggling with cramp towards the end of the game with Nicholson, Sow and Jordan McGhee able to finish the match, but Juwon Oshaniwa and Miguel Pallardo having to be replaced.

United piled the pressure on the Hearts goal towards the end of the game but it was a relatively easy afternoon for Neil Alexander who barely had a save to make during the 90 minutes.

Their fate was sealed in the third minute of stoppage time when Spittal was shown his second yellow after tripping Nicholson as he sprinted forward with the ball.

And despite having a couple of long-range free kicks United found the road to goal blocked leaving them rooted at the bottom of the Premiership table.