Hearts and Aberdeen fought out a draw in a fiercely contested encounter at Tynecastle.
Hearts suffered a double blow in the first half with defenders Stephen Kingsley and Frankie Kent both going off injured and that forced them into a reshuffle.
They seemed spooked by that and Leighton Clarkson was allowed to fire the visitors into the lead with his shot from the edge of the box out of Craig Gordon’s reach.
The Jambos rallied in the second half and Musa Drammeh, who had been handed a rare start, scored his second goal in maroon to level it up from a Blair Spittal delivery.
The Dons had been forced into a change of their own at half-time with Dimitar Mitov picking up a knock and replacement keeper Ross Doohan didn’t look too clever at the goal.
Both sides went hammer and tong at each other in to try and find the winner in an entertaining finale but neither could make the breakthrough.
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Injuries rocked Hearts
That double blow for Hearts really did seem to rock them. They had centre-back Kye Rowles playing at left-back and right-back Daniel Oyegoke playing at centre-back.
While Craig Halkett hasn’t played much football and looked rusty physically, although did acquit himself well. However, he looked to be struggling at the end and that could add to the concern for the next matches.
Aberdeen took the lead just three minutes after the second forced substitution so it wouldn’t be a stretch to suggest it had a direct impact.
But the Jambos recovered after the break and showed character to get back into it.
Hearts vs Aberdeen away hoodoo still stands
Before this game, Aberdeen had not won at Tynecastle since May 2017.
Hearts have struggled in equal measure at Pittodrie with this fixture almost aways won by the home side – the last nine games ending with that outcome. There has been 21 without an away win.
With the Jambos’ confidence in the gutter at the moment the Dons would have viewed this as the perfect chance to smash that hoodoo.
Shayden Morris electric again
Shayden Morris has won a lot of praise this season despite most of his appearances being off the bench.
He has racked up a decent amount of assists and goals, some of them being match-winning, and had a similar impact in Aberdeen’s draw with Hibs midweek.
Morris was superb and set up two of the goals as he continually beat his full-back and got dangerous balls into the box.
He was in from the start today and took up where he had left off.
The wide man gave makeshift left-back Rowles a torrid time and had a massive part to play in Clarkson’s opener.