Dundee United suffered late heartbreak in a pulsating Premiership contest with Hearts at Tannadice.
The Tangerines opened the scoring through Steven Fletcher but were pegged back in the first half by a Michael Smith goal before Dylan Levitt gave the home side the lead again after the break.
However, deep in stoppage time at the end of the game the Jam Tarts were awarded a penalty and ex-United hero Lawrence Shankland duly despatched the spot-kick to earn his side a share of the spoils.
That was the third penalty decision of the afternoon with two previous awards by referee Colin Steven – one for either side – subsequently overturned by the official after reviews on the VAR touchline monitor.
Hearts were forced into an early change in just the sixth minute when Craig Halkett was injured in the act of shepherding the ball back to keeper Craig Gordon with the centre-half having to be helped off to be replaced by Kye Rowles.
United took the lead in the 20th minute with Fletcher controlling a long ball from the back before hitting a left-foot half volley from 22 yards that flew past Gordon with the aid of a deflection.
Hearts responded with Josh Ginnelly embarking on a driving run through the heart of the home defence before curling a superb shot that flew just over Birighitti’s bar.
The pendulum swung in the home side’s favour once more with Levitt finding Fletcher in the Jam Tarts’ box with the former Hibs striker bulleting a diving header that Gordon beat away with Ian Harkes then having a header of his own that clipped the bar and landed on the roof of the net.
Instead, it was Hearts who scored next, equalising after Cammy Devlin played an incisive pass into Smith who finished low into the bottom corner of Birighitti’s net.
VAR controversy
Then deep in first-half stoppage time there was a huge moment of controversy. Referee Steven judged that United’s Arnaud Djoum had handled the ball in the box and awarded a penalty.
VAR Alan Muir then asked the whistler to have another look on the touchline monitor with Steven deciding to overturn his original decision, much to Hearts’ fury.
The Jam Tarts were caught cold just two minutes after the restart with Glenn Middleton teeing up Levitt on the edge of the Hearts box and the Welsh international made no mistake, hitting a low curling shot that flew into the corner of Gordon’s net.
The Hearts keeper came to his side’s rescue to acrobatically tip over a Fletcher header that seemed certain to end up in the back of the net.
The referee then awarded his second penalty of the game – this time to United – when Gordon and Fletcher collided but again after consulting the touchline monitor he overturned his original decision.
Gordon had to be stretchered off and was replaced by Zander Clark between the sticks with Fletcher also having to be withdrawn.
United looked to have held on to take all three points but deep in stoppage time, Steven ruled that Shankland had been fouled by home sub Ross Graham and this time the penalty award stood.
Shankland stepped up and made no mistake, sending Birighitti the wrong way to salvage a draw for the capital side.
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