Dundee and Hearts had to settle for a share of the points in a largely disappointing Premier League encounter at Dens Park on Sunday afternoon.

In a match where both teams had great opportunities to secure victory, particularly in the first half, for their respective reasons it was an unfulfilling 90 minutes.

Dundee, fresh from their shock 2-0 win at Rangers in midweek, failed to grab the opportunity of pushing themselves towards the coveted top six spot.

And the Maroons could not come away with the type of victory which secured a Scottish Cup win at the same ground earlier this month.

Dundee, in particular were guilty of not gathering maximum points, which their often entertaining play warranted.

Star striker Claudio Caniggia was the main culprit, his final touch failing to match his overall contribution.

Dundee had a fairly settled look about them, buoyant as they were from their victory at Ibrox, whereas Hearts welcomed back the influential Colin Cameron, and gave a first start to Canadian international Kevin McKenna on loan from East German side Energie Cottbus.

Hearts should have gone ahead after just nine minutes when they squandered their best chance of the whole game, Andy Kirk drilling a shot inches wide when through on goal, after the Northern Ireland striker dispossessed Barry Smith.

A few minutes later, Dundee showed their quality, and were unlucky not to go in front themselves.

A fluent move involving the trio of Giorgi Nemsadze, Caniggia and Juan Sara finished off with the Argentinian Sara blasting against Antti Niemi from close range.

Dundee then took control of the game, although the Edinburgh side were well organised at the back and generally kept them at bay.

Nevertheless, in the 36th minute the Taysiders wasted another chance when Georgian international Nemsadze casually side-footed a shot from eight yards over after some quality build-up play from Caniggia.

Hearts' response came just a minute later when Flogel attempted an audacious overhead kick which went just wide from an Austin McCann cross.

In the second period, both teams toiled and there was little in the way of entertaining extravagance for the 7,327 crowd.

Both sets of strikers were continually foiled and there was a general lack of goalscoring chances for either side.

Eventually, in the 70th minute Caniggia linked up with Artero in a good wide position but the latter's shot zipped across the goalmouth with none his team-mates able to get the final touch.

The only chance of real note came from Hearts after a minute later when Cameron's first-time shot from six yards was brilliantly turned away by Marco Roccati from substitute Steven Boyack's cross.

Apart from a couple of opportunities spurned at each end by Sara and Flogel respectively, the game had the aura of stalemate about it, and overall the draw was a fair outcome.

Teams

Dundee: Roccati, Del Rio, Smith, Coyne, Marrocco, Artero, Nemsadze, Rae, Garrido (Carranza 49), Caniggia, Sara (Milne 83).

Subs Not Used: Langfield, Russo, Robertson.

Hearts: Niemi, Murray, Pressley, Mckenna, McCann, Juanjo (Boyack 59), Flogel, Makel (McSwegan 84), Cameron, Severin, Kirk.

Subs Not Used: McKenzie, McAnespie, Neilson.

Att: 7,327

Ref: B Orr (Scotland).