Football: Hearts hit heights

Heart of Midlothian 2 Pressley 44 og, Robertson 60 Dundee United 1 Olofsson 45 Attendance: 13,415

Tomas Brolin's loss is Hearts' bank manager's gain. The Swedish striker's non- appearance underlined that his career is spiralling downwards but the Edinburgh club is definitely going in the other direction as they went top of the Premier League without him.

Brolin had been expected to make his debut against Dundee United to launch a three-month loan spell from Leeds United, but the plug was pulled late on Friday night with Hearts calling the player's fitness and cash demands into question.

The 27-year-old former Parma player wanted a reputed pounds 12,000 a week but after a few days' the training manager Jim Jefferies decided it was not worth the risk, saying: "He was lacking match fitness, which is understandable, but it would have taken him a month to reach the required standard."

Hearts prefer to invest in bricks and mortar anyway, unveiling their new pounds 3m Gorgie Stand, and it was only fitting that John Robertson, Hearts' record goalscorer, should be the man to christen it with his 210th goal for the club.

Robertson struck the winning goal in the 60th minute with a glorious glancing header from a Neil McCann cross, making Hearts the title leaders for the first time in five years.

Earlier, Hearts had taken a 44th-minute lead when the Dundee United defender Steven Pressley scored an own goal, turning Jim Hamilton's cross past his own goalkeeper, Sieb Dykstra, however United made amends by equalising within a minute, when Kjell Olofsson drilled in a left-foot shot from Andy McLaren's perfect cross.