Dundee United manager Mixu Paatelainen insists his players will not get carried away with their morale-boosting win over third-place Hearts in the Scottish Premiership.

The rock-bottom Tangerines gave themselves some much-needed hope of staying up courtesy of midfielder Paul Paton's memorable winner at the end of a stormy match which saw both sides finish with 10 men.

Guy Demel had put Paatelainen's side ahead a minute before the interval, only for Jamie Walker to level for Robbie Neilson's visitors after 48 minutes.

Hearts had Jordan McGhee sent off after 40 minutes for picking up a second yellow card while the hosts had substitute Henri Anier dismissed in the dying minutes, also for a second yellow, just after Paton's dramatic winner.

Paatelainen said: "We will keep our feet on the ground. That's for sure.

"We are not kidding ourselves but we do need to be consistent. That's the big thing for any team.

"We all know it's going to be difficult but when the players show an attitude and spirit like this then we have got a chance of staying up.

"The most important game now is the next one which we have to look forward to.

"We know it's been a tough week and some of the players were tired.

"But this is definitely a positive result, although we know it is just once victory and that there's plenty of hard work to be done."