Aberdeen 1-3 Hearts

The visitors went ahead when the ball bounced in off Christophe Berra's shoulder from a Paul Hartley free-kick.

Mauricio Pinilla, who was later sent off, made up for a shocking headed miss when he swept home a shot, following a cute Roman Bednar back-flick.

Saulius Mikoliunas ran through to stroke home a fine finish before Dyron Daal poked in a late consolation goal.

The victory keeps Hearts in second place and within three points of leaders Celtic.

Aberdeen threatened inside two minutes and Hearts goalkeeper Craig Gordon had to race from his line to block an effort from Barry Nicholson.

Soon after, Gary Dempsey, sent a volley skimming along the turf from 25 yards and just wide of Gordon's right-hand post.

The home side continued to press and Gordon had to block at his near post after Dempsey's clipped pass was lashed at goal by Nicholson.

A Darren Mackie cross from the right almost caught out Gordon, who was relieved to see the ball clip the crossbar on its way over.

Dons striker Lee Miller flashed a powerful strike narrowly wide before Hearts announced themselves as an attacking threat.

Pinilla forced his way into the penalty are and manoeuvred the ball around keeper Jamie Langfield but could not find the net from a tight angle.

On the half-hour, Langfield was at full stretch to get his fingertips to a powerful, long-range shot from Lee Wallace.

But the save of the game came five minutes before the interval when Gordon sprung full-length to push away a rasping 25-yard shot from Richard Foster.

Miller headed over from a promising position before Hearts began to take the upper hand.

Pinilla was guilty of a glaring miss, heading wide of an open goal from close range.

And Mikoliunas raced through on goal but could only shoot straight at the advancing Langfield.

Hearts made the breakthrough on 62 minutes when Berra rose with a group of players to reach a lofted Hartley free-kick and the ball glanced off him and into the net from six yards.

Their second goal was a much more impressive effort and involved a neat, flowing move.

Mikoliunas raced down the right flank and delivered a low cross to Bednar, who back-heeled the ball to Pinilla and the striker found the net with crisp strike from 14 yards.

A few minutes later, Mikoliunas burst in behind a static Dons defence and curled the ball beyond Langfield from 20 yards.

Dons substitute Daal beat Gordon to a looping pass into the penalty area and stabbed the ball home before Pinilla got his marching orders.

The Chilean striker picked up a second booking for throwing the ball away to add a slight blemish to a good day for the Edinburgh side.

Aberdeen: Langfield, Hart, Severin, Anderson, Considine (Daal 74), Nicholson, Dempsey, Clark, Foster (Byrne 82), Miller, Mackie. Subs Not Used: Soutar, Diamond, Daniel Smith, Macauley, Maguire.

Booked: Severin, Mackie. Goal: Daal 82.

Hearts: Gordon, Tall, Pressley, Berra, Wallace, Mikoliunas, Zaliukas (Brellier 79), Hartley, McCann (Cesnauskis 74), Bednar (Makela 88), Pinilla. Subs Not Used: Banks, Neilson, Aguiar, Mole. Sent Off: Pinilla (84).

Booked: Pressley, McCann, Zaliukas, Pinilla. Goals: Berra 64, Pinilla 76, Mikoliunas 81.

Att: 11,160

Ref: S Dougal

Taken from the BBC