Under-fire Steven Naismith faces questions on Hearts future as pressure mounts

There was anger in the stands at Tynecastle as the Jambos went down 1-0 to the in-form Tannadice side, with defender Ross Graham firing in the only goal of the game in the 76th minute. Hearts have now failed to win any of their seven games in all competitions and have scored just two goals.

Asked if he was worried about his position, manager Naismith, who signed a contract extension just over three weeks ago, said: “No, because if that time comes, that time will come. I think I’ve said before that the moment I feel I don’t think I can turn it around, I’ll tell the club. It’s not something I’ll be hanging on to if I do get to that point.”

Asked if he was confident he could spark an upturn after the international break, Naismith said: “Yeah, I certainly am. I think there’s a lot of work to get done and there’s a long way to go, but I think we know what it takes. There was a period last season where we went on a poor run and the reaction to that was really good, so that does show that it’s in the players.”

Naismith admitted the performance against United was “not good enough”. Reacting to the anger from the stands towards himself and the players, the embattled manager said: “It’s something that comes with being at a big club. It’s obviously not nice to hear, but it’s part and parcel of the game.

“Some of the players are low on confidence, but that (the anger) ain’t going away. That’s here unless you turn it around and you grind out results and you show the passion and the desire to defend and you show the quality in attack that we need.”

Conversely, Dundee United manager Jim Goodwin was delighted with the way his newly promoted United side defended as they kept their unbeaten start to the William Hill Premiership going.

“Defensively all afternoon, I felt really, really confident that they wouldn’t be able to break us down,” he said. “If I look at the dangerous attacks in the game, I actually think we probably had more than what Hearts did, so it’s a great win. It keeps the unbeaten run going for us and going into the international break, sitting third in the table is probably more than any of us would have dreamed of.”

Naismith made three changes to the side that started Thursday’s Europa League play-off defeat by Viktoria Plzen as Blair Spittal, Lawrence Shankland and Yutaro Oda replaced Cammy Devlin, Gerald Taylor and Liam Boyce. United boss Jim Goodwin sent out the same XI that started the 2-0 victory over St Johnstone the previous weekend.

The visitors had an early opportunity when they won a free-kick wide on the right but Emmanuel Adegboyega sent a free header well wide after getting himself on the end of David Babunski’s delivery. Hearts soon started to zip the ball about with intent and James Penrice went close with a low angled shot from 18 yards that ran just wide of the far post after a slick build-up around the box. At the other end, United striker Jort van der Sande headed over after being picked out by a Babunski cross from the right.

Hearts were enjoying the bulk of the possession in the early stages and Oda threatened in the 17th minute when he fired a powerful shot just over from 25 yards out. The visitors carried a sporadic threat and they had a decent opportunity when Will Ferry crossed from the left but on-loan Liverpool midfielder Luca Stephenson was unable to get a clean connection on his header as he burst into the six-yard box. Hearts almost went ahead in the 34th minute when Penrice’s shot from the edge of the box was deflected just wide.

United – who had managed to frustrate the home support as the first half wore on – had a couple of good chances early in the second period. Kristijan Trapanovski was denied by an important challenge from Frankie Kent after breaking towards goal following a loose Hearts pass before Graham headed just over from a Babunski corner.

Hearts then threatened twice in quick succession as Oda burst into the box and lashed over the bar before Jorge Grant was denied by a good save from Jack Walton.

With the hosts seemingly running out of ideas, United made the breakthrough in the 76th minute when centre-back Graham, who had ventured forward for a set-piece, drilled into Craig Gordon’s bottom right-hand corner from the edge of the box.