When Yan Dhanda nodded the ball over the line deep into injury time there was a noise as if a small away support had travelled to the edge of the Caspian Sea for Heart of Midlothian’s first victory of the season.

“I didn’t think it was a great game... but , to be honest with you, I’m absolutely delighted to find a way, to grind it out,” said interim manager Liam Fox after the game.

He was right. Hearts performed much better in Saturday’s 1-1 draw with Ross County than they did in Thursday’s Uefa Conference League win in Azerbaijan, but the most important thing was to put the first win of the season on the board.

(Image: StatsBomb) The interim manager deployed the same 4-3-3 system against Belarusians Dinamo Minsk, bringing in Barrie McKay for Kenneth Vargas and moving Alan Forrest to the left and replacing Jorge Grant with Blair Spittal in midfield.

Elsewhere, James Penrice started at left-back ahead of Stephen Kingsley who picked up a knock and Adam Forrester retained his place on the right.

Both played as inverted full-backs, with McKay and Forrest looking to stay wide and exploit the space left behind Minsk’s wingbacks. Though, naturally, McKay had more of a tendency to attack central areas. 

Forrester especially was being constantly encouraged to support his winger though there were a few times when they were caught on the break.

Despite seeing a lot of the ball and looking encouraging on transitions, Hearts struggled to create anything meaningful in the first half and were behind after 20 minutes.

Forrester did well to recover after being caught out of position on a cross-field pass and Forrest lost out on the second ball.

From the resulting throw, the winger failed to track Rai, Frankie Kent stayed at his near post and a cutback from the touchline finds Steven Alfred.

Luck swings

Luck plays a big part in football and it was on Hearts’ side for once this season for their equaliser.

Reminiscent of Gerald Taylor’s unchallenged own goal at Dens Park, experienced defender Sergey Politevich headed into his own net from a Penrice corner. It means that four of Hearts’ six goals this season have come via set pieces.

They had seven corners over the course of the game to Minsk's none a mark of how often Hearts controlled possession.

Fox’s side also looked to press high – especially when goalkeeper Fyodor Lapoukhov came out to play as an extra outfielder – forcing Minsk into giving up the ball in their own half.

For large parts of the second half, it looked as if the game would peter out. Hearts again had lots of the ball, though Minsk were slightly more dangerous on the break – most notably when Lapoukhov controlled the ball well outside his box before taking a few beats to pick the correct pass.

Substitutes key

It wasn’t until Fox made further changes that Hearts started to take advantage.

Vargas replaced Forrest 10 minutes after the break, which made sense not least because their opponents had changed both their left-hand sided players by that point. The Costa Rican’s pace was also likely a consideration, again to exploit the space behind the left-back.

Hearts had relative success in wide areas (Image: StatsBomb) Rai had gone off injured in the first half to be replaced by Aleksandr Selyava. At half-time, Pedro Igor came on at left wing and could be seen gesturing to Selyava to attack the left while he would move inside the pitch.

With 15 minutes to go, Grant replaced Cammy Devlin and the lesser-spotted Dhanda came on for McKay. Hearts instantly improved – especially Spittal who suddenly had fresh legs breaking into space ahead of him. 

Right away, Dhanda was involved, intercepting before launching an attack that led to a weak effort from Shankland.

It took until deep into injury time for the goal to come and the move that led to the period of pressure in the lead-up was the best move of the match.

Dhanda won the ball on the edge of his own box and Spittal threaded the ball through the eye of a needle for Shankland to play a one-two with Grant.

Play eventually breaks down but Hearts win a throw-in that Shankland holds well before the ball breaks loose for Grant’s cross.

By that point, the captain has already raced to the back post and yells “Yan!” before heading back across goal for Dhanda to finish.