Dante Polvara pointed to Aberdeen’s disallowed goal in the first half at Tynecastle as a turning point in the game, coming as it did when the Dons were well on top.

“We were playing well in the first half when Bojan scored and had the goal stood, things feel very different. To be fair, it would have been easy to drop off after a decision like that, but we maintained control through the first half. From what I saw, I saw their guy trip up but I thought it was from catching his own player. I couldn’t exactly see, so I don’t know what ended up being the reason the goal was disallowed. It looked clean to me, but I haven’t seen it again.

“It’s a very frustrating result after we controlled large parts of the game. We were unlucky with some decisions and came away beaten, so it’s a tough one to take. Against good opposition away from home especially, you have to put together a good performance for 90 minutes and we have to improve on that, especially towards the end of the game, just as we did the other night.

“We needed to keep control of things, keep pushing but do it in a responsible manner while protecting things at the back. We know they are big rivals in the table so we had to go for it but today we came out the wrong side of things.

“We’d love to be sitting in third and flying, but there’s a real strong mentality here, starting with the gaffer and the captain, they’re very experienced and we can take positives and belief from them. We’ll stick together and keep fighting, there’s still plenty of opportunities ahead of us this season. Once you get a couple of wins together and maybe the ball bounces your way for a change, things can change around very fast.”