Heart of Midlothian v Aberdeen

Friday night’s match will be the 288th meeting of the two sides – a long history that dates back to 1905. The full record is shown opposite.

Aberdeen first faced the Tynecastle outfit in 1905/06 when they earned a 1-1 draw in Edinburgh then recorded a 2-1 victory in the return fixture at Pittodrie. Early matches were mostly close affairs, although between 1910 and 1912 Aberdeen recorded five straight wins and then immediately suffered five straight defeats in reply.

The Dons’ record win against Hearts is 6-2 and this was first achieved in 1947 as the Dons won a League Cup semi-final replay that took them through to Hampden to face Rangers in the final. That score was repeated in 1992 at Pittodrie when Duncan Shearer helped himself to his second hat-trick in five days to help secure the victory. Hearts’ record win came in 1950 at Pittodrie when the Edinburgh side gained sweet revenge for a cup defeat in February as they swept the Dons aside 5-0 helped by a second half hat-trick from Bauld.

The highest scoring encounter between the two sides happened back on 20th November 1926. The match is long erased from the memories of both sets of fans, but the 14,000 in Pittodrie that day were well entertained. Hearts grabbed an early lead after three minutes, but with only 15 minutes on the clock, the score was 3-2 to the home side. The journalists of the day refused to blame weak defending and were wholesome in their praise of some “really brilliant forward play.” Both forward lines played “dashing football” and the Hearts keeper did “much good saving.”

In a ding-dong battle, Aberdeen led 4-3, and 5-4, but were pegged back on both occasions. That early Hearts goal was the only time the Edinburgh side enjoyed a lead and with only a minute remaining the sides were tied at 5-5 and it looked like ending in share of the points. However in that final minute, Reid set up Bruce for the decisive goal as Aberdeen claimed both points and sent the crowd home happy with a win and eleven goals to savour.

Gentleman George Hamilton and Duncan Shearer share the honour of being top scorers against Hearts with 11 goals apiece. Joe Harper, Graham Leggat and Harry Yorston are all two behind with nine goals each while Davie Robb amassed an impressive eight goals in his time. Of the current squad, Niall McGinn is top scorer with five goals against the Edinburgh side.

complete league record