Craig Brown given victorious send-off at Aberdeen

Aberdeen thoroughly deserved their 2-0 victory over Hearts on Saturday largely because they took their chances and the visiting strikers such as Michael Ngoo and John Sutton had an off day, albeit missing by inches on occasion.

Aberdeen 2-0 Hearts - Scorer: McGinn (10, 55)

That is the first thing which has to be said about an entertaining match, with the second being how the Aberdeen players raised their game to give manager Craig Brown and his assistant Archie Knox a winning home send-off before retirement.

More about that later, but first the all-important and unavoidable arithmetic.

The result put Aberdeen into seventh position in the SPL, and we now have a fascinating few days before next Saturday’s deciding matches ahead of the league’s split into top and bottom sixes.

The prognosis is complicated. If Kilmarnock win their outstanding game in hand against St Mirren at Rugby Park on Wednesday, then Aberdeen would have to hope that Killie lose against Dundee on Saturday while the Dons themselves would probably have to beat Dundee United by at least eight to gain sixth position.

If Kilmarnock lose on Wednesday and again on Saturday, Aberdeen would “merely” need to win against United to be sixth.

The other way they can qualify for the top six is if St Johnstone lose to Dundee United tonight and Inverness Caledonian Thistle on Friday night, in which case Aberdeen would still need to beat Dundee United, who themselves would then be able to make the top six by beating Aberdeen.

Hibs also have a slim theoretical chance of making the top six, but they play Celtic at Parkhead next Saturday. Confused? You will be…

The likelihood is that St Johnstone, Kilmarnock or Dundee United will fill positions five and six in the SPL and that will leave Aberdeen cursing a series of drawn matches which they dominated at Pittodrie earlier in the season

Goalkeeper Jamie Langfield had one of his “on” days on Saturday and several good saves kept Aberdeen ahead. He described Aberdeen’s regrets and their current position in simple terms.

“The six 0-0 draws at home was a massive problem for us,” said Langfield. “That was down to the players, as we were on top in the games but we just couldn’t get those elusive goals.

“As players, we take full responsibility for that. If we had turned two or three of those draws into wins we would be sitting quite comfortably in the top six, pushing for Europe.

“On the other hand, we now have to go to Dundee United and win that next game and hopefully the results will go for us elsewhere, though if Kilmarnock win their two next games then that’s them up. It will be a packed house at Tannadice and we’ll take six or seven thousand with us. It is a must-win game for us and we’ll see how results go elsewhere.”

Unusually for him, Craig Brown was highly critical of a couple of errors – television replays showed that Josh Magennis’s disallowed “goal” was not offside – by referee Willie Collum and his assistant, and Aberdeen’s challenge for the top six has been hit by debatable decisions.

Langfield was philosophical: “Sometimes decisions don’t go for you, and as football players you get annoyed, but you just go again.

“I don’t think the referees and linesmen make these decisions just to annoy you, I think that they make mistakes. Everybody in life makes mistakes, so we just take it on the chin and try and go again in the next game, and let the manager and Archie do the ranting about the decisions.”

As Derek McInnes “warms up” to replace them in a fortnight, Langfield said Brown and Knox will be sadly missed, particularly by himself. “It was in our thinking to make it a good send-off for the manager and Archie at Pittodrie,” he said. “They have worked so hard for the club, and they’ve been great for me especially through my illness. The gaffer and Archie were superb and I was wanting to give a bit back today.

“People might say you should have done it earlier, but it was about today’s game, knowing that today was their last game at Pittodrie, we wanted to do it for the manager and Archie, and they were really pleased that we got the right result.”

Aberdeen won the match with two Niall McGinn goals, scored, coincidentally, in the tenth minute of each half. The second was a beauty featuring a jinking run that showed McGinn’s provenance as a former winger followed by a curler that flashed into Jamie MacDonald’s far corner.

Sutton hit a post and Jonny Hayes cleared a Danny Wilson effort off the line while Ngoo seemed to have a radar for picking out Langfield with his shots. But Hearts did contribute to an open game and their youngsters look good for the future.

McGinn’s first was Aberdeen’s first goal against Hearts in ten outings, and his 19th goal of the campaign, with Craig Brown hailing him as the signing of the season.

Langfield said: “We’ve got that monkey off our back about not scoring against Hearts.

“The manager has got to take great credit for playing Niall where he is. He came here as a right winger from Celtic and the manager has put him up front.

“The manager has unearthed a gem there and the new manager will get the benefits of that. It’s really important that we hold on to our good players, and Niall is certainly one of them, so hopefully we can hold on to him at the transfer window.”

Langfield pointed to the young Dons as the future of the club: “We have got boys coming through,” he explained. “It’s good for the Scottish game that we are breeding young boys here – the likes of Ryan Jack, Clark Robertson, Pete Pawlett and Joe Shaughnessy, who has been a revelation this season, and the new boys like Nicky Low. It all bodes well for next season.”