Hearts moved up to third in the SPL table with a hard-fought 2-1 win at troubled Dundee.
Both teams started brightly with Phil Stamp firing just over the bar for Hearts while Dundee youngster Duncan McLean gave the Hearts defence some problems with his pace.
There was an anxious moment in the visiting ranks on ten minutes when Craig Gordon totally missed a Patrick Kisnorbo back-pass but fortunately for the young keeper the ball rolled narrowly past the post.
A nice throughball by Mark Fotheringham gave McLean a chance on 21 minutes but his effort was blocked by Alan Maybury and went out for a corner.
Ten minutes later Dundee again went close when Nacho Novo raced to the byline on the left before laying the ball back to Fotheringham who saw his 12-yard effort deflected wide.
Dundee's Neil Jablonski was next to have a go but after a good one-two he shot high and wide.
Despite Dundee dominating most of the opening 45 minutes it was Hearts who went ahead two minutes after the interval.
A good ball by Andy Kirk sent Maybury racing down the right and he sent a great cross into the six-yard area where Mark De Vries rose virtually unchallenged to head past Julian Speroni.
A slack clearance by Dundee's Lee Wilkie almost gifted Hearts a second but when the ball was returned back into the danger area Kirk fired just over from ten yards out on 75 minutes.
Dundee equalised with ten minutes remaining when McLean fired home as he picked up a loose ball from 18 yards after Novo was blocked, for his first senior goal.
The home team's joy was short-lived however, and the visitors regained the lead three minutes later when Maybury fired his left-foot shot low into the net from 16 yards from a De Vries cross.
Hearts substitute Dennis Wyness went close to a third for the visitors in stoppage time but his close-range effort flew just wide.