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Hearts recovered from injury blows and their defeat by Rangers to confidently brush aside Aberdeen and stretch their Premiership lead to three points.

But the victory was not without controversy as Steven Naismith scored their second after winning a soft penalty off Lewis Ferguson's challenge.

Hearts were the more threatening in a feisty first half and Arnaud Djoum's headed opener was well deserved.

The Dons responded and Gary Mackay-Steven's penalty pulled one back.

Naismith had a second penalty saved by goalkeeper Joe Lewis, but Hearts had already done enough to extend their unbeaten home run to nine games and consolidate their place at the top of the table.

The Dons, runners-up for the past four seasons, improved after the break but are now 10 points adrift in seventh.

Paying the price for roughhouse tactics

Hearts manager Craig Levein had been denied the services of striker Uche Ikpeazu, Scotland defender John Souttar and midfielder Peter Haring through injury, while full-back Michael Smith was suspended.

He had insisted ahead of kick-off that his summer signing spree had ensured his side could cope with such body blows - and so it proved in a bruising encounter with 11 yellow cards.

Summer signing Clevid Dikamona was handed his first start at the heart of the defence and the Congo international confidently coped with an immobile visiting attack.

Naismith had already inexplicably missed from only four yards before Hearts made their clever play tell.

Aberdeen were caught out by an Olly Lee free-kick that gave Marcus Godinho, making his return from injury, the chance to find Djoum with a near-post cross and the Cameroon midfielder's header found the far corner.

The Dons had been living dangerously with roughhouse blocks at a series of corners but seemed to be hard done-by when Naismith appeared to slip under little contact from Ferguson.

The Scotland forward powered the penalty kick down the middle and Dons boss Derek McInnes responded with a double change at half-time.

Introducing forward Niall McGinn and Scott Wright, both back from injury, came close to earning the Dons an unlikely point.

Northern Ireland international McGinn was brought down by Godingo and Mackay-Steven found the corner of the net from the spot.

Djoum had a close-range header blocked by Lewis, who then saved a Naismith penalty after Sean Clare, the summer signing making his debut off the bench, was pulled down by Shay Logan before Hearts survived some late but desperate Dons pressure.

No Djoum and gloom for Hearts

Aberdeen were left in despair at penalty awards and defeat at Tynecastle

Brian McLauchlin at Tynecastle Park

Without the services of four key players, it would have been easy to make an excuse if Hearts' fortunes took a downward turn.

Not so. Levein's band of warriors turned in a wonderful performance and arguably their best 45 minutes of the season in the opening half.

With Djoum pulling the strings in midfield, they had a player who looked like a man on a mission as the Dons defence were pinned back inside their own 18-yard box.

Winger Callumn Morrison delivered some wonderful crosses into the danger area, while captain-for-the-day Naismith gave us another indication as to why Hearts want to keep him beyond the end of this season.

Aberdeen were pretty dreadful in the first half and only after the introduction of McGinn and Wright at the break did they muster a threat.

McInnes will undoubtedly be asking questions of his players. They looked laboured and off the pace in that opening 45 minutes -a vast improvement will be required next week against Rangers, when a place in the League Cup final is up for grabs.

Post-match reaction

Hearts manager Craig Levein: "We felt we didn't do ourselves justice in our last game against Rangers - we manufactured a situation that allowed them to win the game and we feel we could have done much better.

"So we felt we had making-up to do from that.

"People were saying we had lost two important players on top of Christophe Berra - and that's true - and it was important that we showed everybody we had the squad to be able to cope.

"I know it is only one match, but certainly the guys who came in - Clevid Dikamona and Oli Bozanic came in and we were missing Peter Haring and Michael Smith today as well - proved that our form this season isn't one of us being on an upward curve and we'd drop off after that.

"We need to maintain the standards, but it was a good performance against a resurgent Aberdeen side in which Derek McInnes had all his best players available."

Aberdeen manager Derek McInnes: "The only positives from my team came in the second half. I thought we at least took responsibility and showed far more courage and more belief.

"We weren't aggressive enough. We never played with enough intent.

"Scott McKenna will be back, so he will improve us. Every team needs their big players.

"If there's any positive from today going into next week, it's that we need to learn - because we're going into Hampden, a proper atmosphere, a great game and, if we can take a lot of the second half into the game next week, we'll give ourselves a better chance of getting the required result."