I watched Hearts beat Dundee - an injury conundrum emerges but star shows he's ready for key role
Our verdict on a big weekend for Hearts as they got the better of Dundee.
Gone are the early criticisms of Wouter Vrancken’s Hearts and in their place comes hope of a special season in Gorgie.
The Jambos looked to be struggling for answers in their Premiership clash with Dundee on Sunday, but even when not at their best, they find a way. Claudio Braga got the ball rolling from the penalty spot with an equaliser and then Sabah Kerjota’s winner after 97 minutes had a feeling on inevitability even as the clock ticked red during the 2-1 success.
The win added to the Edinburgh derby joy over Hibs less than 72 hours prior and while some sceptics doubted the Belgian head coach after defeats against Sturm Graz, Benfica and Aberdeen, the doubters of his attacking style are quickly turning to believers with the Jambos now sitting second in the Premiership.
Hearts face in-form Championship leaders Stenhousemuir next in a Premier Sports Cup quarter-final on Friday - and they will be no easy foe on their plastic surface at Ochilview under new head coach Marvin Bartley. They’ve already dumped Motherwell out the competition, but Hearts return to Hampden on top of a league phase berth in the Conference League would really set Gorgie expectations ablaze.
Here are three key talking points that have emerged at Tynecastle ahead of an important cup clash.
Midfield concerns
One negative to have come out of Sunday is just how thin Vrancken’s midfield options are. With Tom Renaud already injured for months, Blair Spittal has now joined him in the treatment room, out for the foreseeable after being spotted in a moonboot following victory against Hibs last Thursday. They had struck up a good relationship in the engine room and have been key to how Vrancken wants his side to build play. Ageu has had injury concerns since arriving at Hearts last season and Yan Dhanda has not featured in competitive plans thus far.
It left Tomas Magnusson and Laurent Mendy as the only natural midfielders in the squad against Dundee and issues were further amplified by possible deputy Oisin McEntee going off with a fitness concern at half-time. Leart Kabashi has arrived from Grasshopper Zurich, but it’s a lot to ask of the 18-year-old to play a regular role in midfield as he adapts to Scottish football. Right-back Jordi Altena has played in central midfield before and winger Calvin Miller did so for a period of the game in Vienna as Vrancken looks at possibly getting creative.
Super Sabah
After arriving from Italian lower league side Sambenedettese last season, adaptation was required for Kerjota, but 19 sub appearances probably wasn’t what he had in mind. He’s shown in flashes some of what he is capable of but Sunday’s match-winning moment is his most vital at Hearts yet. He drove and drove at the Dundee backline until they folded, with his low curling effort a well-deserved moment. It gives Vrancken plenty of verve out wide, with Miller and Josh McPake both in good form.
“I hope a lot, but Sabah was always already good in his head,” said Vrancken in his post-match press conference on what the goal could do for the Albanian winger’s confidence. “He also feels comfortable in the things we want to do. I think we have options in these positions.
“We have options. We have Calvin and Josh, of course, they are doing really great. Sabah also a possibility to start but we wanted to keep the momentum the other two had, especially after the Hibs game. I'm happy to see that we could bring Sabah and create this extra spark because that's why you need subs.”
Fortress Tynecastle
Teams must look at who they’ve got next in their schedule, see it’s Hearts at Tynecastle and then start thinking about where the next three points might come from beyond that.
Dundee were the last away team to win in Gorgie during a Premiership clash, way back in April 2025 as the curtain came down on Neil Critchley’s Tynecastle tenure, which feels like a parallel universe compared to the one Hearts are in now. Since then, they have gone a full league season unbeaten, and with their next home game not until October 10 against St Mirren, they will stretch that run to an outstanding 15 months.
What’s more impressive is there’s not been too many of those games where they’ve even remotely looked like losing. Motherwell going 3-0 up last August is probably as close as anyone’s got before Hearts came back to draw 3-3. Even here, with the game at 1-0 to Dundee in the latter stages of the second half, there was an energy in the stadium that the hosts would get level. They then went one better to give themselves a further shot of momentum.