NOT for the first time, a display of exemplary ball handling would prove to be the story of the afternoon at Murrayfield. Hearts’ temporary flit down the road to the home of Scottish rugby has been borne out of necessity rather than choice but, in the first of three matches here while renovations continue apace at Tynecastle, the change of scenery almost induced instant success.

Thoroughly dominant in the second half of an absorbing if goal-free contest, only the heroics of Joe Lewis denied Craig Levein a victory in the first match of his second stint as Hearts manager. The draw ended Aberdeen’s previously perfect start to the league season but, were it not for Lewis who made save after save, it would have been worse still. Little wonder Levein looked slightly stunned after the game as he tried to digest everything he had just witnessed.

Mangers often point the finger at misfiring strikers whenever they fail to find a way through but there was little the Hearts players did wrong on this occasion. They simply found themselves up against a goalkeeper evidently determined to earn a clean sheet all on his own.

Barely involved in the opening exchanges as Aberdeen beavered away at the other end of the pitch, the Englishman adroitly pushed away a Jamie Walker free kick after 30 minutes. From that moment on, he was a busy as a steward trying to catch a runaway French cockerel rampaging across the Murrayfield pitch.

The saves ranged from the perfunctory to the spectacular. In the remainder of the first half he was agile enough to push away an Isma Goncalves driven effort, then thwarted a Jamie Walker lofted shot that was arcing into the top corner.

It was the same after the break, the 29 year-old blocking a Christophe Berra back-post volley, repelling a shot from debutant Ross Callachan, a cleverly-steered sidefoot effort from Walker, before smothering an injury-time attempt from Don Cowie.

It was unclear to the naked eye whether he also got a tip to touch another thump from Goncalves on to his crossbar but if he did – and on this form there was every chance – it would have been the save Wof the match.

“I give an enormous amount of credit to Aberdeen and in particular their goalkeeper, I thought he was outstanding today,” said Levein.

“I couldn't really blame our strikers for not hitting the target because they did that. I just thought he was outstanding. Someone the Aberdeen players who get the credit are the forward players and today it felt like he single-handedly kept us at bay.”

Derek McInnes could only agree. “A good goalkeeper will win you points when you’re not at your best,” said the Aberdeen manager. “We’ve seen that time and again and Joe has done that for us. We’re grateful to have him.”

This was Levein’s first match in the dug-out for almost five years and he looked as physically drained as his players as he sat down to offer his assessment of the match. He will surely, though, find plenty to be positive about when the time comes to go over the recording of his side’s performance.

His initial goal had been to make Hearts harder to beat, something that manifested itself in the deployment of a formation that was effectively 5-4-1.

If they were physical and robust in the first half, then there was undoubtedly more to them in the second period as they demonstrated greater attacking intent. As well as cursing Lewis, they may also come to regret Kyle Lafferty’s decision to take a touch 10 minutes from the end after being picked out by Callachan when a first-time shot may have reaped greater reward. That aside, Levein saw plenty to be encouraged about.

“When I look at the game again there will be things I feel really good about,” added the former Scotland manager. “I feel for the players because they worked their tails off for 90 minutes. At the end we were on top and had Aberdeen on the ropes. And we just needed that killer punch to kill the game off. But we didn’t manage that unfortunately.”

Hearts are back on the road for their next four matches before returning to Murrayfield for games against St Johnstone and then Rangers next month. It made for a curious setting, with some rugby markings still evident and the rather long walk from the dug-outs to the side of the pitch.

Still, the 67,000-capacity stadium presented the chance for almost 7000 Aberdeen fans to travel down for Hearts’ first match at Murrayfield for 11 years, contributing substantially to a total attendance of just shy of 25,000. It was never going to have the same raucous intimacy as Tynecastle but it still worked well in the circumstances.

Aberdeen seemed to have adapted better to the new surrounds in the early stages but by the end they were hanging on grimly for the point that drops them into second place in the table.

They felt they had a decent shout for an early penalty when Berra and Adam Rooney tangled as they went for Stevie May’s ball in from the left, while Shay Logan saw Jon McLaughlin – making his Hearts debut on his 30th birthday – deny him a goal with a smart save with his legs. The rest of the day, though, belonged to the man between the other posts.