Hearts inched back to the top of the Scottish Premiership but could only muster a disappointing draw against the league’s bottom dwellers Livingston.
It means their lead at the summit, which was three at the beginning of the weekend, has been cut to a single point after Rangers’ victory over Dundee United on Saturday.
It could have been worse for Hearts, who finished the game with 10 men. Livingston took a surprise lead in just the fifth minute when Stevie May lashed in from the edge of the box, to stun a 7000-strong away support.
Hearts came back strongly, and it was returning captain Lawrence Shankland who got the equaliser by powering in a header after a brilliant Marc Leonard cross.
Both sides spurned chances to take the lead before the break, Shankland for Hearts and Babacar Fati for Livingston, but they would go in level.
The weather took a turn over half-time and when the sides emerged to a snowstorm, it was the visitors who started in a flurry.
Shankland provided this time, nodding a looping header back across the goalkeeper for talisman Claudio Braga to leap ahead of his defender and put Hearts ahead for the first time.
The advantage only lasted seven minutes though, as slack Hearts play was punished by Livingston, who broke up the pitch and squared the ball for Lewis Smith at the back post.
The sunshine soon broke out again but neither side could break the deadlock, meaning Hearts’ title charge has once again been held up on the road – they’ve not won in their last four away games.
To add insult to injury for Hearts, Marc Leonard was sent off for hauling down Robbie Muirhead as the Livi striker broke clear in the dying seconds.
