5 hours ago
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Sir Alex Ferguson watched on as Hearts defeated Aberdeen 1-0 to move seven points clear of Rangers at the top of the Scottish Premiership.
Ferguson, the last manager to win the title with a team that was not Celtic or Rangers when his Aberdeen side were back-to-back champions from 1983-85, was at Tynecastle as a guest of the Hearts coach, Derek McInnes, and he saw Cláudio Braga score what proved to be the only goal of the game just before the half-hour mark.
Hearts had enough chances to have won more convincingly, but their supporters greeted the full-time whistle with jubilation as they stretched their lead over Rangers and Celtic, who face each other at Ibrox on Sunday.
There were two changes to the Hearts side that started last weekend’s victory over Falkirk as Jamie McCart and Landry Kaboré replaced Stuart Findlay and Islam Chesnokov. The Aberdeen interim manager, Peter Leven, made three changes to the side that started Tuesday’s 0-0 draw at Dundee United as the goalkeeper, Per Kristian Bråtveit, Tom McIntyre and Kenan Bilalovic were replaced by Dimitar Mitov, Liam Morrison and Topi Keskinen.
Aberdeen had not won at Tynecastle since May 2017 and they swiftly found themselves on the back foot as Hearts, backed by a pumped-up home support, started strongly. Tómas Magnússon had the hosts’ first chance in the fourth minute when he headed wide from Blair Spittal’s cross.
Alexandros Kyziridis then had a shot deflected into the arms of Mitov before Braga’s low effort from just inside the box was saved by the Dons keeper. Braga threatened again when he glanced a header over from Harry Milne’s cross.
Hearts were playing some scintillating football and they had a huge chance in the 21st minute when Kaboré got himself clean through but the forward’s lob over the advancing Mitov drifted agonisingly wide. Aberdeen had a rare foray forward in the 26th minute which resulted in Toyosi Olusanya lashing wide from Keskinen’s cross.
The breakthrough came for Hearts in the 28th minute when Marc Leonard sent Kaboré scampering down the right and the Burkina Faso striker rode the challenge of Morrison before cutting the ball back for Braga to steer home from six yards out.
Spittal then rasped an effort just over from the edge of the box in the 36th minute as the league leaders had to be content with a one-goal advantage at the end of a first half they had dominated.
Four minutes after the break, Kaboré had a ferocious shot pushed out by Mitov. Aberdeen countered and Nicky Devlin had an effort scrambled behind by McCart after being set up by Olusanya. From the resulting corner Kevin Nisbet volleyed narrowly wide. At the other end, Spittal had an effort deflected behind from the edge of the box before Braga was denied by the legs of Mitov.
Hearts’ failure to find a second goal meant they had to endure a stressful finale before closing out another crucial victory in their quest for a first league title since 1960.
