Listen to post-match interviews with Stephen Frail and Michael Stewart on Hearts World now. Broadband TV highights of the win over Aberdeen will follow, later along with highlights of the U19s win at Gretna.

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Caretaker boss Stephen Frail today backed Saulius Mikoliunas after the Pittodrie 'diving' row.

The Lithuanian incurred the unjustified wrath of the Aberdeen players on Saturday after going down in the box after a second-half challenge from Jackie McNamara and was booked by referee Willie Collum for simulation.

The player protested his innocence at the time although immediately after the game Stephen refused to be drawn on the incident, instead waiting to view television evidence before expressing an opinion.

Now, having studied footage of the flashpoint which occurred late on in the Jambos' impressive 1-0 victory, Stephen has absolved of his player of any blame in the incident.

He said: "I have watched the incident again and there was definitely contact in the area with Miko.

"That's it finished as far as I am concerned and we are justified in taking no action against him. It looked a penalty at the time and what I saw just backs up my initial feelings on the matter."

The controversy, which followed a similar incident involving Andrius Velicka in the derby victory over Hibs, failed to take the shine off what was a superb win for Hearts in the Granite City.

Christian Nade's strike saw the Gorgie side chalk up back-to-back wins in the Clydesdale Bank Premier League for the first time since early October and left Stephen delighted with the team's efforts.

"It was a great win for us as Pittodrie is a very difficult place to go and get a result," he said.

"I was delighted with every single one of the players. But we can't get carried away with ourselves. That is two good results against Hibs and Aberdeen and sets us up nicely for the CIS Cup semi-final against Rangers on Wednesday.

"We are still taking small steps but it is encouraging to see things moving forward and we have to try to keep things going in the right direction."

It was a hectic weekend for Stephen, who headed to Raydale Park yesterday to watch Darren Murray's U19s thump Gretna 4-1 in the SFA Youth Cup.

Goals from Rocky Visconte, Jonathan Brown, Scott Robinson and Paul Mulrooney were all on the scoresheet as the visitors eased through to the next round.

"It was an excellent performance from the team," said Stephen. "They lost a very early goal but showed great character to come back in the manner they did. All in all it has been a very successful weekend."