Ross Doohan saves Jorge Grant’s penalty to bring an end to Aberdeen losing run

Aberdeen halted a run of five consecutive defeats as goalkeeper Ross Doohan made a stoppage-time penalty save from Jorge Grant to ensure a 0-0 draw at home to Hearts.

The Dons’ winless run was extended to 11 matches since November, but they will have been relieved to have escaped with a point after the Jambos’ two January signings Elton Kabangu and Jamie McCart both threatened with second-half headers before the last-gasp spot-kick drama when Sivert Heltne Nilsen was penalised for a foul on Hearts sub Kenneth Vargas.

Hearts are now unbeaten in four but remain second-bottom of the William Hill Premiership, albeit within a point of both Ross County and Kilmarnock, and five of the top six.

Dons boss Jimmy Thelin, whose side had slipped to fourth in the table amid their remarkable recent slump, made four changes to the side that went down to a 2-0 defeat at Motherwell a week previously, with defenders Jack MacKenzie, Angus MacDonald and Slobodan Rubezic dropping out along with Duk.

Latvian centre-back Kristers Tobers and on-loan Preston winger Jeppe Okkels were pitched straight into the starting line-up for their debuts, while James McGarry and Leighton Clarkson also came in. Midfielder Nilsen dropped back into defence to partner Tobers.

There were three changes to the Hearts side that started the 1-0 win at Dundee United as Daniel Oyegoke, McCart and Beni Baningime replaced Adam Forrester, Kye Rowles and Liam Boyce, who sealed his move to Derry City on Saturday. New Belgian forward Kabangu was named on the bench.

Aberdeen, who had not lost at home to the Edinburgh side since May 2016, started on the front foot and forced a flurry of corners in the opening minutes, with one of them leading to an opportunity for Tobers who saw his close-range effort clawed out by Craig Gordon.

Hearts soon gained a foothold and went on to enjoy plenty of possession but were unable to carve out any clear chances before the break.

The two big opportunities of the first half fell to Dons winger Topi Keskinen, who was put through on goal twice in the space of nine minutes.

On the first occasion, after 24 minutes, the Finn was released by a ball over the top from Palaversa but completely fluffed his effort wide from the edge of the box and then he burst into the box following a lovely through ball from Kevin Nisbet but rolled his shot agonisingly wide of Gordon’s left-hand post.

Hearts – struggling to open up the Dons defence – sent on Kabangu for his debut in the 66th minute and the on-loan Union Saint-Gilloise forward almost broke the deadlock in the 71st minute when his header from Grant’s cross was tipped over by Doohan.

From the resulting corner, taken by Blair Spittal, McCart headed against the post before Kabangu saw his effort from the rebound charged down by Jamie McGrath.

Hearts looked set to claim a third consecutive win deep into stoppage time when Nilsen bundled over Vargas as the pair jostled for a James Penrice cross, but Doohan dived to his right to push Grant’s spot-kick on to the post.