Dundee United and Hearts share spoils from Premiership draw at Tannadice

Dundee United and Hearts fought out a pulsating 2-2 cinch Premiership draw at Tannadice.

The visitors stormed into the lead with less than a minute on the clock with Liam Boyce putting the finishing touch to a well-worked counter-attack.

Just seconds after the half-time break, the home side equalised with a stunning strike by Liam Smith with Nicky Clark then giving United the lead from the penalty spot before the hour mark.

However, Hearts salvaged a dramatic draw late on thanks to a Craig Halkett header, nine minutes from time.

The result leaves Hearts third, while United have slipped out of the top six down to seventh on goal difference.

There was a quickfire beginning to the game with United on the attack with Smith bursting down the right before cutting the ball back to Clark, whose shot was blocked and then gathered by Craig Gordon.

The goalkeeper immediately launched a counter-attack, throwing the ball out to Barrie McKay who passed to Gary Mackay-Steven, with the winger then finding Boyce who produced a great finish off the inside of the post with barely 52 seconds on the clock.

However, Mackay-Steven’s day ended just seven minutes later when he had to go off injured to be replaced by Alex Cochrane.

There was a let-off for United after 26 minutes when goalkeeper Benji Siegrist had to make an instinctive stop to prevent an own goal by Ilmari Niskanen, then immediately after, Hearts’ Ellis Simms had a chance but blasted over.

The Jam Tarts had to make another substitution with Cammy Devlin limping off to be replaced by Peter Haring.

The Tangerines then produced an opening of their own but John Souttar made a superb block as Ian Harkes tried to pull the trigger.

Incredibly, Hearts had to make their third replacement