Hearts take heart from youth

Hearts' decision to sell off yet more of the family silver had no impact yesterday as their precocious kids helped to polish off Dunfermline with a 2-0 victory which provided ownership of second place in the Scottish Premier League.

Antti Niemi watched from the Tynecastle stand, awaiting his impending £2m move to Southampton, as the fruits of the Edinburgh club's youth policy blossomed. Graeme Weir scored his first goal for Hearts and his fellow teenager Paul McMullan then created another for prolific the Mark De Vries.

Both Weir and McMullan were part of the side which won the Scottish Youth Cup two years ago, and the club's chief executive Chris Robinson insisted on Friday that Hearts have to cash in on Finland's goalkeeper Niemi to reduce debts, as they did with the sales of David Weir, Gary Naysmith and Colin Cameron to English clubs.

Weir, just 18, broke the deadlock with a powerful 53rd-minute header from a delightful cross by Jean-Louis Valois and four minutes later De Vries netted his sixth goal since his summer move from Holland when his header finished off McMullan's burst from his own half.

The other half of Edinburgh, though, is shrouded in gloom after Hibernian's fourth straight defeat left them rooted at the bottom of the table.

Steve Lovell's stoppage-time goal on his Dundee debut sealed a comeback at Dens Park in a game Hibernian looked unlikely to lose.

Garry O'Connor provided Bobby Williamson's team with a ninth-minute lead when he sweetly volleyed in a knock-down from Mixu Paatelainen but Hibernian tried to hold on to their lead and paid the penalty.

Fabian Caballero snatched an equaliser in 78 minutes and then Lovell plundered the winner in injury time to give Dundee a 2-1 victory.