This was something more than just another step towards what is shaping up to be the most incredible title triumph in living memory.
It felt like a side starting to rediscover its mojo.
Against the odds.
At an absolutely vital time of the season.
Hearts are carrying on this quest for the crown against the backdrop of some really hurtful injuries. Lawrence Shankland and Cammy Devlin have been missing for some time now, but the loss of defender Stuart Findlay for six weeks with a hamstring problem saw yet another key performer ruled out during the week.
Even record signing Edouardo Ageu being stuck on the casualty list with a thigh problem picked up in the warm-up against Falkirk last weekend felt sore. It robbed manager Derek McInnes of another option to freshen things up, add some goal threat.
Claudio Braga nets the only goal of the game as Hearts sink Aberdeen at Tynecastle
Braga celebrates his goal that put the Gorgie club seven points clear at the top of the table
Former Dons manager Sir Alex Ferguson was in the crowd at Tynecastle
All of that made no difference yesterday, though. The Gorgie outfit battered Aberdeen at Tynecastle. The 1-0 scoreline might have been the same as that recorded against the Bairns, but the performance was way, way better.
It’s the best they’ve played in weeks, to be fair. Particularly in the opening period. They created bags of chances — something of a problem in recent times — and ran the show pretty much from the off.
Twenty-one attempts at goal tell their own story, seven on target. At the other end of the field, goalkeeper Alexander Schwolow didn’t have a single save to make. Not one.
Hearts barely missed a beat in the absence of Findlay at the back. Jamie McCart stepped in at centre-half and was as steady as you like. The midfield was on top of things. Transitions weren’t the headache they have been of late. Concentration was good.
That’s what happens when you kickstart proceedings with a live rendition of the Hearts song — the best club anthem there is, bar none — belted out by Colin Chisholm, who first recorded it in the 1980s. It got the ground rocking, and it’s something that really ought to be done at every home from now until the end of the campaign in an attempt to keep the old Jam Tarts juggernaut trundling on.
Claudio Braga’s 28th-minute goal, of course, made the difference here. And it has to be said, the 26-year-old Portuguese was just brilliant. For a bloke playing in the Norwegian second tier not that long ago, he has handled the weight of expectation on his shoulders — especially in the wake of Shankland’s injury — with such aplomb.
That’s 15 goals for the season now. At time up, he won a standing ovation for taking a pair of boots over to a fan in the stand and presenting them with his jersey too. He has become a hero at Tynecastle and, to paraphrase that song about him that you hear everywhere Hearts go, he may well be yet to have his finest hour.
This was a bloomin’ good hour-and-a-half, though. Braga could have scored another couple were it not for saves from visiting keeper Dimitar Mitov. He has led the line on his own recently, but looks better in a front two — and dovetailed nicely with Pierre Landry Kabore against the Dons.
Kabore hasn’t always convinced on his outings in maroon, but he did well here. Mind you, his setting-up of Braga for the clincher only came after he’d botched up a fantastic opportunity of his own.
With the first 45 at the halfway mark, the Burkina Faso striker got in behind a static Aberdeen rearguard to latch onto the ball and put himself through one-on-one with Mitov.
It was all there for him. He should have struck the ball early and low, really. Instead, he opted to dink it over the Bulgarian and was left despondent on the deck when it went just the wrong side of the far post.
Derek McInnes and his men have piled the pressure on Rangers and Celtic ahead of the derby
What’s important, though, is that he didn’t let that head of his drop. And when given another sniff just before the half-hour mark this time, he delivered in the most spectacular fashion.
Marc Leonard whacked the ball down the right channel from midfield more in hope than expectation and Kabore did well just to keep it in play on the touchline.
From there, though, he fashioned a real piece of magic. Liam Morrison dived in to make a tackle and was left absolutely skinned. Kabore made his way to the bye-line, but stayed ice-cool this time around, lifted his head to look for options and played the ball perfectly into the path of Braga.
His first-time finish was well directed and truly delightful, finding its way into the corner of the net.
Hearts had lots of openings throughout. In the first half, Tomas Magnusson and Braga sent headers just wide. After the break, Braga tested Mitov, Magnusson had the ball whipped off his toe yards out, and Blair Spittal had an effort deflected just wide.
Other than a couple of Toyosi Olusanya half-chances, Aberdeen offered very little indeed.
Hearts’ new cheerleader-in-chief, Sir Alex Ferguson, was in the main stand for this one, bedecked in a most conspicuous maroon tie. Impressed as he might have been by his hosts for the day, Lord knows what he must have thought of his former club.
Aberdeen are a mess. A very expensively assembled one. One win in their last 12 league fixtures gives you a decent starting point when addressing their issues.
There’s just so little about them. So little to show for all that cash spent over the past couple of years. If budgets are anything to go by, they should be right up there with Hearts, but they are miles off it. No wonder their own punters booed them at time-up.
How tough it must be for those supporters to look at where they stand and compare it to the jubilant sights and sounds that make Tynecastle such an exciting place to be right now. There were claims from the away camp for a penalty late on when substitute Stuart Armstrong went down under a challenge from Michael Steinwender, but the Dons deserved nothing from the match as a whole.
During the game, at half-time and at the end — both from the punters in the stands and over the tannoy — Tynecastle reverberated to the sound of ‘Radio Ga-ga’ in honour of Braga and that goal that put the Gorgie outfit seven points clear of second-placed Rangers having played a game more.
It might not be long until they start thinking about putting another Queen classic on the playlist down Gorgie way, mind you — Another One Bites The Dust.
That’s another three points in the bag. Another game ticked off. Just nine of them remain. And immortality is moving ever closer.
