After his side came back from a goal down to beat Hearts, Barry Robson paid tribute to his players and to the fans for sticking together and coming up with a vital win at Pittodrie.

“Winning was the most important thing. I said to the players afterwards that they deserved that win. They’ve been hard done by at times this season, they’ve not got what they deserved from a lot of games, but that doesn’t change the fact they’ve played well at times. We’ve had 57 shots in three games and today, two finally went in for us and we won the game. That’s the difference.

“The fans were brilliant with us again, they made a difference too, and we have to start to give them more than we have done in the league this season. I don’t mind them giving me a bit of stick after Kilmarnock, because it wasn’t good enough. But they were there again today, helping us through, and they played their part in getting that result today too.

“First half we were trying to play a bit too much given the conditions, trying to play through them while playing into the wind as well, and we were coming unstuck with that. We tweaked a few things and the last 15 minutes of that first half, we were getting much more into the game and we carried that on into the second half.

“I thought we were well worth the win, but we know we have to improve in the league.

“It has been hard with Europe and the cup run, it is a gruelling schedule and that does have an impact. A lot of the players have bumps, bruises, niggles and what have you from the games and the travelling but they keep going, they keep fighting.”