Dimitar Mitov never stopped believing Aberdeen could beat Hearts to reach final

Dimitar Mitov insisted he always believed Aberdeen would eventually grind down Hearts after they reached the final of the Scottish Gas Scottish Cup with a hard-fought 2-1 extra-time victory.

The Jambos had Michael Steinwender sent off at 1-1 after 44 minutes but looked like taking the semi-final all the way to penalties until being reduced to nine men in the 116th minute when Cammy Devlin was dismissed.

The Dons eventually made their numerical advantage count in the 118th minute when Palestinian substitute Oday Dabbagh pounced to send them into their first Scottish Cup final in eight years.

“I was believing because I knew with the quality we had on the pitch and with Hearts starting to get a little bit tired as well, eventually we were going to have that one opportunity, and I trusted in our strikers to put it away,” said Bulgarian keeper Mitov, who returned to the side after a month out injured.

“I said after the game to (Hearts keeper) Craig Gordon, he managed to put an incredible save in the first half of extra time, and he was very unlucky with the second goal, but overall I’m really happy that we managed to get through.”

Mitov was delighted to be able to celebrate with the Dons at full-time.

“It was incredible, because they’ve been traveling in numbers all season and to see their support as we walked out and see them in such numbers after such a long journey for them, I’m really glad that we managed to give them something to be happy about,” he said.

“There would have been no worse feeling than playing against 10 men and not managing to win the game, but we did that, so I’m really happy.”