HibERNIAN managed to hold on by the skin of their teeth last night in a Hallowe'en encounter that had its fair share of don't-watch-alone moments.

The worst of them came with what was the last kick of the ball, when Scotland internationalist Billy Dodds, who was the best player on the park, blasted the ball over from the penalty spot in the fourth minute of injury time.

Other moments of embarrassment included an own goal by Jason de Vos of Dundee United, a goalkeeping error by Ole Gottskalksson that had given United the lead, and a lapse in concentration from United defender David Patridge that gave away a penalty which Latapy converted for his first of two goals.

Oh, and for good measure, a black cat ran across the Easter Road pitch with the score at 3-2, which, if you believe in such things, brought Hibs a lot of luck.

United manager Paul Sturrock will be rueing their defeat in a game in which they scored two good opportunist goals from Dodds and Jan Telesnikov.

In Dodds, a man whose tireless running caused all sorts of problems to Hibs, they have a man who will not let the penalty miss bother him. After the game, Dodds made it clear that, if a penalty comes up against England in the Euro 2000 play-offs, he would be quite happy to take it.

''I knew Gottskalksson was going to dive left, but maybe it was just the pressure of the moment, last minute, last chance of a goal, sort of thing that I decided to blast it,'' said Dodds.

''I blasted one against Andy Goram at Motherwell and scored so I won't let that miss affect me. I'll still be putting myself forward to take a penalty against England.''

United manager Paul Sturrock conceded that defensive errors had cost his side the game, although, on the positive side, he said he had a young team that would learn. He felt his side sat back too much in the second-half and allowed Hibs to come at them too much.

''I am a great believer in things levelling out,'' said Sturrock. ''A number of young laddies made individual errors which cost us dear. We must get the players to concentrate for 90 minutes.

''Part of football is losing and it is learning from such things, which is of benefit to the football team.''

Hibs manager Alex McLeish remained level-headed after the win and, although he praised the way his side performed, conceded that they are letting in too many goals.

''By losing goals we are giving the strikers a mountain to climb,'' said McLeish, who singled out Grant Brebner for special praise for his performance in the middle of the park. ''Certainly, on the night, we got that wee bit of luck when Dodds missed the penalty.''

As to the game itself, it was an exciting affair with United taking the lead in five minutes following two dreadful errors by the Hibs defence. The first culprit was young centre-back Mark Dempsie, whose sliced clearance landed at the feet of Dodds.

All credit to the striker for trying a lob from the edge of the box, which was clearly done in more hope than expectation. Even so, the ball seemed to hang in the air for an eternity and the smart-money was on Gottskaksson gathering the ball.

However he made a complete hash of trying to catch it in the swirling wind and the ball dropped, somewhat embarrassingly for him, into the net.

What those watching on Sky Television in deepest, darkest England would have made of such a bizarre goal remains to be seen, but there was more of the same to come three minutes later.

Kenny Miller held the ball up well before laying it to Grant Brebner out wide right. The Scotland Under-21 player whipped in a David Beckham-style low cross which Jason De Vos managed to slice over his own goalkeeper and into the net.

The game came to life once again in 33 minutes when United took a deserved lead. A Hugh Davidson cross was dummied by Ferraz, whose movement caught out the Hibs defence, who left Telesnikov with the easy task of stabbing the ball home.

United started the second half like they finished the first and, in 58 minutes, should have taken the lead when Jamie Smith, Mathias Jack, and Gottskalksson got in a terrible tangle that allowed Dodds to take the ball away from the goalkeeper but the angle was too narrow for him to score from.

Hibs did their best to get back into the game but had United defender David Patridge to thank for allowing them to do so in 61 minutes. A Kenny Miller cross from the left was aimed at Paatelainen, but it never reached him as Patridge needlessly body-checked the striker to give away a penalty.

With Latapy coming on to a game, he was always going to score with the spot-kick, although he needed to keep his nerve as the ball blew away the first time before he had a chance to hit it.

With around 15 minutes left, United had a great chance to take the lead. Once again it was Dodds who managed to slip his markers and only good anticipation by Gottskalksson thwarted the striker's effort, which spun out to Davidson on the edge of the six-yard area and his header was then cleared off the line by substitute Derek Collins.

The let-off for Hibs was a real turning point in the game for three minutes later the United defence was caught flat-footed by a move involving Franck Sauzee, Grant Brebner, and Latapy. Despite having David Worrell and David Hannah in close attendance, he managed to elude them both before firing in a left-foot shot into the net.

United did their best to stage a fightback and will return to Tannadice rueing Billy Dodds' penalty miss in a game in which they deserved to take a share of the points.