Hero Hartley holds his nerve

Hearts 1
Aberdeen 0

HEARTS will return to European football's premier club tournament for the first time in 46 years next season after claiming second place in the Scottish Premierleague last night thanks to a patient, determined performance which inflicted a narrow defeat on a gritty Aberdeen outfit.

Although Hearts enjoyed the lion's share of possession and deserved this timely victory, it took a second-half penalty from the peerless Paul Hartley - surely the club's outstanding player in what now promises to be a season of achievement - to clinch all three points. It means Hearts cannot be caught by Rangers now, even if Alex McLeish's men win the meeting between the sides at Ibrox on Sunday. With the Scottish Cup final still to come against Gretna at Hampden a week on Saturday, Hearts are poised to complete their best season in half a lifetime.

At the end, of course, when the final whistle blew, and the Champions League anthem resounded round the old ground, the place was bedlam. All the controversies of a remarkable year, the departed managers and dropped players, were forgotten. In the end, Hearts did what Vladimir Romanov had promised and split the Old Firm for the first time since Motherwell were second in 1995.

Although they contained Hearts with a swashbuckling effort before the interval, Aberdeen rarely troubled Craig Gordon after the break and lacked the guile to threaten once they had conceded the penalty. That said, Hearts were edgy enough in injury time when Julien Brellier made a fleeting appearance to thunderous acclaim.

After Aberdeen produced a sterling display which frustrated the home side for long spells, former Hearts player Scott Severin's own sense of frustration saw him commit a rash, two-footed challenge on Bruno Aguiar ten minutes from the end which earned the defender a straight red card.

Twenty years to the day since Hearts saw their dreams of title glory shredded at Dens Park, the Edinburgh side relied on the same players who defeated Celtic 3-0 on Sunday to try and complete the job of qualifying for the Champions League and exorcise those ghosts which had haunted the club for so long. Many in the packed stands too young to have experienced the crushing disappointment of 1986 wore replica shirts which bore the simple message: "Believe 06".

Keen to start in the same urgent manner which had swept the champions aside, Hearts faced an Aberdeen side spurred on by their own European agenda. Needing a victory to move into fourth place and overtake Hibs in the chase for a UEFA Cup spot, Aberdeen replaced Gary Dempsey with Richie Byrne but sought to play with the same fire which earned a 4-0 win over the Easter Road club on Saturday.

Hearts made the first incision in Aberdeen's defence when Hartley won the ball from Jamie Smith and sent Roman Bednar clear of the offside trap on the right. The striker's cut-back to Deividas Cesnauskis was crisp but the Lithuanian rushed his shot from eight yards wide of the target. Thereafter, Barry Nicholson made Hartley scrap for every loose end.

Aberdeen have improved more than any other SPL side in the second half of the season and there was sharpness about their work on the counter-attack which posed a threat to the home side. Well organised and competitive, Aberdeen sent Richard Foster scampering down the left flank before his cross was expertly grabbed by Craig Gordon.

Edgaras Jankauskas gave Hearts a solid foothold in the game thanks to his strength and skill. The big centre-forward was a towering presence in possession and his ability to bring others into the action was a concern for Russell Anderson and the rest of Aberdeen's defence. Although Rudi Skacel and Cesnauskis switched flanks at times, the support for the front men wasn't as productive as usual during the opening period.

Hearts were comforted when Steve Lovell was flagged offside in a tight situation just as Aberdeen heaved a sigh of relief when Hartley's radar-like precision from a free-kick only narrowly failed to locate the head of Steven Pressley at the back post.

In what was an engrossing contest between two eager outfits, Hearts didn't find it easy to manipulate space when their former stalwart, Severin, so expertly filled the sweeper's role for Aberdeen.

Since the number of clear-cut chances were few and far between, the moment when Bednar's cross located Skacel at the back post had to go down as a missed opportunity when the midfielder couldn't get his angle right and a close range shot slid wide.

Those who detected an element of unease in Hearts' ranks would have taken note of how reliant the home side were during stretches of the first half on long, high balls. Clearly puzzled by the visitors' tactics, the onus lay with Skacel and Cesnauskis to get in behind Aberdeen's full-backs more often in the second period and open things up for Hartley to drive into the penalty box.

Not surprisingly, Hearts found it tricky to play at the same tempo which defeated Celtic but there was a welcome injection of urgency when Skacel fed Cesnauskis and the winger cut inside only to have a shot blocked.

All season Hearts have relied on Neilson's flat, torpedo-like long throw to unsettle opponents. When almost all else had failed to provide the breakthrough, the full-back's throw to the front post was flicked goalwards by Bednar and an Aberdeen player raised a hand to keep the ball out.

There was confusion over whether the culprit was Anderson or Zander Diamond but referee Stuart Dougal quickly awarded the penalty. However, his decision only to show the offender a yellow card, rather than a red, was difficult to comprehend since the defender was the last man, his action was deliberate and it denied a goal. There was a long interlude between the award of the 53rd-minute penalty and the taking of the kick, which might have unnerved a lesser man than Hartley. As composed as ever, he curled a right-foot shot beyond Jamie Langfield into the corner of the net.

Goals change the atmosphere at games as well as the flow of the action. Suddenly, as second place and the Champions League spot looked more certain, the old stadium resounded with chants of celebration.

Hearts: Gordon, Neilson, Fyssas, Pressley, Tall, Aguiar (Brellier 90), Cesnauskis, Hartley, Skacel (Mikoliunas 66), Jankauskas, Bednar (Pospisil 88). Subs not used: Banks, Berra, Wallace, Barasa.

Aberdeen: Langfield, McNaughton, Anderson, Diamond (Dempsey 66), Byrne, Nicholson, Severin, Foster, Smith, Lovell (Mackie 33), Crawford. Subs not used: Esson, Considine, Macauley, Maguire, Griffin

Taken from the Scotsman