Sam Cosgrove was the hero once again as Aberdeen made it four wins on the bounce with a 2-0 victory against Hearts.
The Englishman headed home inside the opening two minutes before converting a second half penalty for his sixth goal in four games.
The visitors ended the match with 10 men after Demetri Mitchell was sent off with four minutes to go.
The Dons stuck with the same team that started Tuesday’s 5-1 victory over Dundee, while Hearts manager Craig Levein shuffled his pack, making five changes from the team thumped 5-0 by Livingston last Friday.
Goalkeeper Zdenek Zlamal was among those who dropped out with Colin Doyle making his first start of the season, while Steven Naismith, Olly Lee, Sean Clare and Marcus Godinho also returned.
A minute’s silence was held before the match in memory of Aberdeenshire Amateur Football Association secretary Brian Christie, who died earlier this week.
The Dons made the perfect start to the match and opened the scoring inside 90 seconds with their first attack.
Stevie May pounced upon a slack header from Peter Haring and his looping cross was expertly nodded home by Cosgrove to continue his goalscoring run.
The Dons, brimming with confidence, pushed for a second with Doyle called into action to keep out a Niall McGinn volley from the edge of the area.
The ball was in the Hearts net for the second time in the 26th minute when a Shay Logan cross found the far corner but the strike was ruled out by referee John Beaton for a foul on goalkeeper Colin Doyle by Lewis Ferguson.
Aberdeen goalkeeper Joe Lewis was alert to deny Steven MacLean after a well-worked Hearts free kick before Dons captain Graeme Shinnie fired wide at the other end as an entertaining half came to a close.
Aberdeen suffered an early blow two minutes into the second half with Max Lowe limping off. Seventeen-year-old Dean Campbell came on as his replacement with Shinnie moving to left back.
The Dons were struggling to get going after Lowe went off and Hearts were enjoying more possession and looking the more likely to get the crucial next goal.
Instead it went the way of Aberdeen after Scott McKenna was fouled in the penalty area by Christophe Berra and Cosgrove calmly sent Doyle the wrong way from the spot with 69 minutes on the clock.
It went from bad to worse for Hearts in the closing stages when left back Demetri Mitchell was sent off for a second bookable offence for a foul on Campbell.
