It was not the end result that Hearts craved, but for goalkeeper Craig Gordon Saturday’s frustrating 1-1 draw with Dundee confirmed that Robbie Neilson’s side have transformed themselves back into a ‘big team’.

Jason Cummings secured a point for the visitors with an 83rd minute equaliser, leaving the Dark Blues to gleefully celebrate their plunder with their ecstatic fans at full-time.

Hearts were left to rue not converting their domination of the ball into more goals, having led through John Souttar’s sumptuous first half effort.

The home team's reflections on a 20-point haul from ten games and a place among those sides setting the pace at the Premiership summit at least tempered some of the disappointment they felt at failing to close the match out.

Scotland goalkeeper Gordon insists the game also highlighted how Hearts are now regarded among their top-flight counterparts.

“You look at the celebrations of Dundee at the end, they’re delighted with their point coming here,” insisted Gordon.

“I said that to the boys in the changing room, we’ve transformed ourselves back into a big team.

“That’s credit to everybody with the effort they’ve put in so far this season, but with that comes responsibility to go out and do that every single week, hopefully we can continue to do that and stay at the right end of the league.

“When we put ourselves in such a good position, we’ve dropped a few silly ones, we perhaps could have more and that’s the annoying thing.

“That’s football though, there’s probably one or two points we’ve got against the run of play, but the majority were very well deserved.

“We’re up there on merit. We wish we could’ve had a few more points, but we’re still up there and we go again midweek against St Johnstone.”

The confidence flowing through the entire Hearts team was evident as Hearts bossed the game, even at one stage controlling 81 per cent of possession.

They did struggle at times to penetrate a disciplined Dundee defence and it took a stunning Souttar effort to break the deadlock in the 37th minute, the defender curling a sublime shot from 20 yards into the top corner.

Dundee improved after the break and Cummings took advantage of slack defending to nod home Cammy Kerr’s long throw.

Hearts had hit the frame of the goal through Liam Boyce and Gary Mackay-Steven but Gordon insists they need to be more ruthless in the final third.

“We could do with scoring a few more goals,” added the 38-year-old. 

“We’re creating the chances, we’re playing well enough to get the chances and I’m sure the guys we’ve got at that end will be notching a few before too long, but we just left them in the game today and that’s always dangerous at 1-0."

Cummings has scored in seven of the last nine occasions he has faced Hearts.

As former Hibernian players, both Cummings and Leigh Griffiths were subjected to the usual taunts from Hearts fans. With regards to the latter, Cummings insists it went too far.

“It’s almost like you get your ticket and it says in small print, you can say what you want, do what you want, don’t worry about it,” said Cummings.

“Some of the abuse is disgusting. If you were to say that in any other walk of life or any other job, the police would be involved. 

“I don’t know how it’s right for when it comes to a game they can say what they want, do what they want.

“Leigh is a good lad, a family man and we’re just all human beings doing our job.”