Hearts rumble on after a thunderous Tyncastle cup tie

Scottish Cup winners in 1896, 1906, 1956 and 2006, and runners-up in 1976, 1986 and 1996, the Edinburgh club remains right in the hunt for glory in 2016 after claiming the scalp of the second favourites.

And, equally significantly, they also ended a recent poor run in the tournament which has seen them fail to make it past the first round since crushing Hibs 5-1 in the Final four years ago.

“We hadn’t even managed to score a goal since winning in 2012,” said Paterson, whose early header was the difference the between the teams.

“This is a massive boost for us because Aberdeen are a great team.

“They turned us over last time (in the league at Pittodrie four weeks ago) and we didn’t want that to happen again. Maybe we realised we showed them a bit too much respect up there.

“Now we are in the fifth round.

“The fans will be getting carried away and while as players we know we have to stay level headed we can also enjoy the moment.”

But if it was impossible to argue with the sentiment, this great old ground fairly crackled from start to finish, Aberdeen manager Derek McInnes was far from happy accusing Hearts of gamesmanship for lying down when they were not hurt.

“We’re hugely disappointed. We work for a club who want to compete for trophies and get to finals, and we no longer have that opportunity. To play for a big club you have to win big games and put yourselves in a place to win trophies. We didn’t do that here,” he said.

“But I think we all across the board don’t like to see people looking for bookings (a reference to his second half touchline row with Robbie Neilson when he berated the Hearts manager for trying unsuccessfully to get Graeme Shinne booked for a foul on Arnaud Djoum). It’s disappointing to say the very least.

“And if you see the play at the end (when Aberdeen refused to give Hearts the ball back in stoppage time) there is nothing wrong with Ozturk when the cross comes in. McGhee gets the foul and Ozturk is fine.

“Then all of a sudden he’s gone from the front post area to the edge of the box before going down.

“Now that’s something consistent with what Hearts do at times when they’re trying to see a game out.

“It’s something we made our players aware of.

“Neil Alexander couldn’t wait to get the ball out the park but if their player chooses to go down with cramp or whatever, and doesn’t require a physio, then we’ve got every right to keep possession of the ball.

“The boy at the end, Juanma – Juanma of all people taking the moral high ground – saying how we shouldn’t have kept the ball.”

Ozturk’s main contribution to the game though was heading the ball into the danger area for Paterson to nod home his goal.

That set the tie up beautifully with Aberdeen obliged to go on the front foot in search of an equaliser and the hosts fired up both by their success and the knowledge a second goal could win it.

There might have been little to choose between the two in terms of urgency and tempo but Robbie Nielson’s men were miles the better team in the first half.

They carried much more menace going forward. Quick, direct and full of clever movement they won corner after corner as they overlapped first on one wing then the next.

Aberdeen were better after the break. Rooney had a reasonable looking penalty claim for a shirt tug by Ozturk dismissed.

Kenny McLean blasted over high over the crossbar from good position and Andrew Considine missed a sitter when teed up by a low cross from Jonny Hayes.

Not even the tactic of throwing goalkeeper Danny Ward up front three times in the dying seconds was enough to retain their interest in this season’s Scottish Cup.