Dundee United boss Jim Goodwin understands "exactly what Steven Naismith is going through" after seeing his side leave Tynecastle Park with a deserved 1-0 win on Sunday.

The Arabs rose to third in the Scottish Premiership with the victory courtesy of Ross Graham's trundled effort into the bottom corner during the second half. Heart of Midlothian sit second bottom after four games.

It prompted a furious reaction from the Hearts support as they made their feelings known in the aftermath of the goal and at full time. It prompted Naismith to be asked if he was concerned about his position.

Goodwin said he could relate following his experience at Aberdeen and even moments during his United tenure.

"I mean it's always a difficult place to come," he said. "And obviously people will talk about the run that Hearts are on.

"I know exactly what Steven Naismith is going through because I've been there on numerous occasions as a manager myself. It's quite a lonely place but I do believe he's recruited really well in the summer. For one reason or another it's not quite clicking at the moment. I think European football puts a big demand on your domestic form as well.

"We believed in ourselves coming here. There's a great resilience within the group and I'm just delighted that we were able to come away with all three points, carry that unbeaten run on."

Goodwin backed Naismith to turn it around, looking back to last season and how Hearts "were the third-best team in the country by a mile".

"He's an experienced guy," he said when asked if there was anything he would say to the Hearts head coach. "He's been in the game a long, long time. He's worked under some fantastic managers throughout his playing career.

"I'm pretty sure he's got a number of people in his phone that he can pick up and make a call to and I'm sure there are a lot of people around him supporting him there. He did terrific last season. They were the third-best team in the country by a mile and they've got good quality players here.

"Sometimes you need an ugly win just to get the season going and I'm pretty confident with that group that he's got there that he'll be able to do that."

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In terms of the game, Goodwin revealed he was unsure what formation Hearts would start with but had an inkling it would be a back four. He admitted that once his side got to grips with it, they grew into the game and "were quite comfortable".

"I thought Hearts started really brightly," he said. “We weren't sure in the build-up to the game what system they were going to start with so we were trying to work on one or two things through the week.

"I kind of thought he might go with the back four given they finished the game midweek in Europe quite strongly. But I just thought it took us five or ten minutes to adjust to that. I thought they were getting a little bit too much joy in the wide areas and 2v1s. 

“Once we'd done that I think we were quite comfortable. We were quite happy to sit there in our low block and try and hit them on the counter-attack.

“We actually got a couple of half-decent opportunities off the back of that. We just lacked a little bit of quality and some poor decision-making when we managed to turn over possession. 

“But defensively all afternoon I felt really, really confident that they wouldn't be able to break us down. I think the back lads deserve a huge amount of credit but there's a hell of a lot of work put in by the midfielders and the forward players as well."