A Hearts side reeling from suggestions that majority shareholder Vladimir Romanov is in charge of team selection scored a controversial late penalty to rescue a dramatic draw against Dundee United.

The home side had taken the lead in the 34th minute when Grant Brebner headed Charlie Mulgrew's cross past Craig Gordon, but Alan Archibald's questionable foul on Steven Pressley allowed Paul Hartley to score from the spot.

In a dramatic conclusion to the game Barry Robson was dismissed in the 85th minute for a foul on Pressley, only to be followed by Julien Brellier for a push on David McCracken.

Hearts surprisingly made six changes to the side which defeated Aberdeen 3-0 on Saturday. Misrad Beslija and Jose Goncalves were out injured but Andy Webster, Robbie Neilson and Deividas Cesnauskis all dropped the bench, while Lee Johnson missed out altogether.

They were replaced by Takis Fyssas and Rudi Skacel who had recovered from flu, Hartley who was back from suspension, debutants Ludek Straceny and Martin Petras, and Christophe Berra.

A drab start to the match saw Collin Samuel fire an eighth-minute shot well wide while a Hartley effort which deflected for a corner off David McCracken was all the visitors could muster.

That was until the 16th minute when Czech winger Straceny surged past Mulgrew towards the byline, but although his cut-back found the unmarked Michal Pospisil six yards from goal, somehow the striker contrived to completely miss his kick and the ball ran harmlessly out of play.

Fittingly the opening goal was a scrappy affair with Brebner meeting a Mulgrew cross at the back post to bundle United into the lead.

Craig Gordon tried in vain to block the relatively weak effort, which appeared to take a deflection off Fyssas, but only succeeded in pushing the ball inside his left-hand post.

United should have doubled their lead nine minutes into the second half when Robson's delightful inswinging corner was met by Samuel at the back post, but the Trinidadian's poor effort bounced agonisingly into the turf and over Gordon's crossbar.

That miss was to prove extremely costly only eight minutes from time as Hearts, who looked as if they were never going to breach a well-marshalled United defence, were awarded what looked a very soft penalty kick.

As Archibald jostled with Pressley to win Hartley's flighted free-kick, referee Dougie McDonald adjudged that the United defender had fouled his opponent and Hartley was afforded the chance to equalise from the spot.

The midfielder coolly rolled the ball past Derek Stillie to score his 11th goal of the season, before Robson and Brellier were dismissed in an eventful conclusion to a previously lacklustre encounter.

But despite earning a draw, Hearts could fall 10 points behind Celtic at the summit of the table should Gordon Strachan's league leaders beat Falkirk on Wednesday.

Teams

Dundee Utd: Stillie, Duff, McCracken, Archibald, Mulgrew, Kerr,

McInnes, Brebner, Robson, Fernandez, Samuel (Miller 90).

Subs Not Used: Samson, Kenneth, Robertson, Gardiner, Abbot,

Goodwillie.

Sent Off: Robson (86).

Booked: Kerr, Duff, Samuel, Brebner.

Goals: Brebner 35.

Hearts: Gordon, Petras (Neilson 57), Pressley, Berra, Fyssas, Hartley, Brellier, Skacel, Elliot, Pospisil (Cesnauskis 65), Straceny (Mikoliunas 75).

Subs Not Used: Banks, Webster, Wallace, Aguiar.

Sent Off: Brellier (86).

Booked: Skacel, Petras, Pospisil.

Goals: Hartley 83 pen.

Att: 10,584

Ref: D McDonald (Scotland).