Aberdeen 3-0 Heart of Midlothian

Robbie Neilson welcomed Lawrence Shankland, Alex Cochrane and Robert Snodgrass back into his starting line-up, as Andy Halliday, Stephen Kingsley and Jorge Grant dropped to the bench.

It was the home side who started the brighter, and they went ahead after just five minutes, when an initial Hearts clearance went only as far as Duk and his low shot found the bottom corner via a deflection.

Aberdeen added a second after 21 minutes when a cross from the right was glanced in by Duk for his second of the afternoon.

The Dons made it three seven minutes later, as Mattie Pollock stooped to head home a free kick at the back post.

Half time: Aberdeen 3-0 Hearts

Zander Clark was alert to deny Duk his hat-trick three minutes after the interval when pushing the strikers long-range effort over the crossbar.

Up the other end, Hearts almost found a route back into the game when Robert Snodgrass was sent clean through on goal, but under pressure, he dragged his shot wide.

Clark was again called into action to save a Pollock header on 52 minutes, before Shankland saw a goal bound strike deflected behind for a corner on the hour mark.

Hearts huffed and puffed for the final half hour but couldn’t find a route back into the game as the hosts took all three points.

Aberdeen: Roos, McCrorie, Scales, Shinnie ©, Miovski, Duk, Ramadani, Hayes, Pollock, Clarkson, MacDonald

Subs: Lewis, MacKenzie, Barron, Markanday, Myslovic, Watkins, Coulson, Duncan, Richardson

Hearts: Clark, Smith (Halliday, 90), Kio (Forrest, 46), Shankland ©, Rowles, McKay, Cochrane (Kingsley, 34), Sibbick (Grant, 75), Ginnelly (Humphrys, 75), Hill, Snodgrass

Subs: Stewart, Kingsley, Grant, Devlin, Halliday, Forrest, Neilson, Humphrys, Kuol