Dundee Utd2–1Hearts

United turned up for this one with eyes on the title. Meanwhile their opponents looked bound for the First Division.

Dundee United harried and hustled their opponents from the start, forcing corners galore and giving Hearts defence all kind of problems. But the visitors survived, though it took a fine save by Thomson Allan to keep out a Hegarty header in eight minutes. United looked just too anxious as they struggled to find openings in a packed Tynecastle defence, but the breakthrough came in 20 minutes. Payne took a free-kick on the right and successive headers by Hegarty and Sturrock gave Davie Dodds the chance to use his head and score from close range. Two minutes later it should have been two. A 25 yarder from Narey beat Allan and came off the post to Dodds, all on his own, but Davie put the rebound straight to the keeper. Hearts real chance came in 25 minutes, Gibson missing the ball completely following a corner on the left. It was Allan to the rescue again in the 37th minute as he flopped onto a Holt shot. But with half-time beckoning, United doubled their advantage. Davie Dodds flicked a Payne cross to Billy Kirkwood who headed strongly past Allan into the top of the net.

Hearts brought on Busby for Tierney at the start of the second half. Much of the strain seemed to have gone from proceedings. United could afford to cool things down though Narey tried a snap shot which was far too high. Dodds nearly made it three with a tremendous shot following a Payne corner kick. Liddell was booked for persistent fouling in 65 minutes. Craig had put one good try for the visitors in 75 minutes, his first time shot being inches high. This wok up United, and when Stark crossed low from the left, Liddell almost deflected the ball past Allan. The keeper then made a hard save look easy as he picked up a Kirkwood shot. Five minutes from time Stark handled a Busby shot on the goal line and Willie Gibson scored from the penalty kick.