THE dust was not even close to settling after a wonderful cup tie at Tynecastle when the accusations began.

Aberdeen broke the unwritten law of not giving the ball back after an opposition player went down, supposedly with an injury, while Hearts were, to put it bluntly, simply at it.

We shall get to the finger pointing in a moment but let’s first take a look at an Aberdeen side who will finish this season with a reputation of being chokers. This is an accusation few could argue with.

Both cup competitions ended after one round, to Hibernian and now Hearts. Scotland’s second best team failed to turn up for either match and unless they can somehow hunt down Celtic will end this season with nothing.

Can they actually win the league? Despite Celtic’s bang average displays they are three points ahead of Aberdeen and have a game in hand. Derek McInnes’ side had a poor Festive period when they dropped points at home to Inverness and Partick Thistle. Did they choke or are they simply not good enough. Perhaps a bit of both.

McInnes could not stand still on the touchline on Saturday. Was this because deep down he knew the Scottish Cup was his side’s only chance of silverware? Is he like the rest of us who believe no matter how many times Celtic stumble they are still going to be too good for the best of the rest.

The Aberdeen manager appealed for everything, argued with Robbie Neilson and even told his players to keep possession in the final minute after the Hearts goalkeeper Neil Alexander kicked the ball out so Alim Ozturk could receive treatment, which incidentally he didn’t require.

“I was really frustrated because you can hate each other but this is still fair play. It is a game,” said the Hearts midfielder Arnaud Djoum. “When they didn’t give the ball back I was a little surprised because even if it’s a derby game you still need fair play.

“When you put the ball in the stand I think they have to give you it back. That’s normal. It’s fair. So I am really disappointed they didn’t do it. They set a bad example.

“I tried to speak to the Aberdeen manager and I told him they should have given it back. I don’t know what he said to me, something about our goalkeeper taking too much time.

"A lot of kids come here to see football and it is not good to see something like this. It has never happened to me in a game before, that’s why I was so surprised and angry.”

It came as no surprise to hear that Mark Reynolds, the Aberdeen captain, took a different view.

“People choose to play football in a certain way,” said Reynolds. “They (Hearts) were trying to kill the game and preserve their one-goal lead. That’s their way of doing it. It’s frustrating for us because we’re pushing on, trying to get the goal. I think we just left it too late.

“Their guy goes down with cramp. That’s not an injury, that’s just lack of fitness. We’re not going to give the ball back because he’s not fit enough to play the games. That’s our thoughts on it.”

Both sides had a point but what is not up for debate is the fact Aberdeen let themselves down. They were awful in the first-half, which began badly for them when Callum Paterson scored after just two minutes with a header. How this ended up the game’s only goal was a real puzzle.

Reynolds to his credit did not attempt to paper over his team’s failings. Aberdeen are a good side, McInnes a talented manager, but they have messed up up way too many opportunities over the past 18 months.

“We have let ourselves down,” said the skipper. “We’ve let the manager, the assistant manager and the fans down as well. Not many teams turn up for kick-off with 3,500 supporters travelling as far as they had with the weather conditions they had in Aberdeen as well.

“It’s just trying to make amends now and kick on with the league. That’s the third time we’ve gone out at the first hurdle which, for a club like Aberdeen, with the support we’ve got and the squad we’ve got, is unacceptable

"We just need to keep going, try to push Celtic as far as we can, keep picking up three points and see how far it takes us. The biggest thing for us is that we don’t ever put in a performance like that again. We’ve managed to let them outfight us and outwork us and that should never be the case. “

Hearts bullied Aberdeen in the best sense of the word. They were superior in every department and should have won this more comfortably.

Djoum said: “It would be a dream to win the cup this year. We have started well, now we need to keep going and keep on fighting, and if we play like this I think we have a good chance to go very far in this competition.”

You would not bet against them doing just that.