A glory double from skipper Lawrence Shankland in ten, first-half minutes, secured a welcome three points for a Hearts side who now move off the bottom of the William Hill Premiership.
His strikes after 21 and 31 minutes ended the goal drought for the Scotland striker and the 29-year-old admitted: “It has been a long time coming.”
Jambos fans in the 18,737 crowd celebrated when the Glasgow-born forward netted his opener from a header following a cross from James Penrice.
The second came from a rebound from Dundee goalkeeper Jon McCracken and the Jambos are now 11th in the 12-strong table with Edinburgh rivals, Hibs, now bottom after a 3-0 defeat at pace-setting Celtic but, in fairness, they did have their chances which they failed to take.
Hearts have 13 points and have closed the gap between them and tenth-placed Kilmarnock and St Johnstone, who are ninth, to one point.
Shankland told BBC Sport Scotland: “Its been a frustrating period and you just need to dig in a get through it.”
Hearts fans naturally hope that he can add more goals and the Men in Maroon take more points in the busy schedule pre-Christmas.
Dundee rarely troubled Hearts’ veteran goalkeeper Craig Gordon and Neil Critchley the club’s head coach said: “Even though we won, second half we could and should have played better.”
The Dens Park side’s manager, Tony Docherty, whose men beat Motherwell in midweek, Hearts did not have a game, said: “The overriding feeling is one of frustration. We weren’t at it at all in the first half. Some of our decision-making was poor.”
PICTURE: Lawrence Shankland by David Mollison
Experienced news, business, arts, sport and travel journalist. Food critic and managing editor of a well-established food and travel website. Also a magazine editor of publications with circulations of up to 200,000 and managing director of a long-established PR/marketing company with a string of blue-chip clients in its CV. Former communications lecturer at a Scottish university and social media specialist for a string of successful and busy SMEs.
