CALLUM PATERSON'S deft flick late into extra time gave Hearts a passage into the third round of the League Cup in a night of drama in Forfar.
With the home side's manager,Dick Campbell, having been sent to the stand at the end of the first period of extra time – he was vociferously angry that too much time had been played as Paterson redirected Juanma Delgado's strike past Forfar hero Rab Douglas – Forfar knew they were in trouble.
Danny Denholm had already been red-carded as regulation time was about to close and Douglas had produced a series of breathtaking saves, including a penalty save from Gavin Reilly and the Delgado follow-up.
Then, to cap a compelling game, Forfar's Kevin Nicoll's challenge on Callum Morrison, right on the final whistle, was judged unacceptable and he, too, saw red.
Hearts were made to work extra hard for their win and it took them until the 74th minute to break the deadlock and beat Douglas, unable to take goal kicks because of a hamstring injury, yet able to be agile and acrobatic in equal measure.
It was, however, Kevin McHattie, the Hearts left-back who was to damage the hosts four minutes later with a ferocious shot from inside the area as Forfar hearts sank, wondering perhaps if their opponents' greater fitness would kick-in.
But there was further drama to come and it was Forfar who hit back six minutes from time as Michael Dunlop's looping header confused the Tynecastle defence and dropped into their net to put the tie into extra time.
Forfar had been helped through several difficult moments by Douglas, still one of the best goalkeepers in his division, even at the age of 43.
But when his team-mate Denholm was shown a second yellow card in the dying stages of play and Campbell was spoken to by the referee for his reaction, it seemed almost inevitable that the top-tier side would capitalise.
And so it proved. With the first-half of extra time about to end, a Hearts corner kick from the left was drilled towards goal by Delgado before Paterson's touch took it past Douglas and ended Forfar's hopes of progressing in this tournament.
Campbell, meanwhile, expressed disquiet that the goal had been struck 38 seconds over the one minute add-on time shown by the fourth official.
Nicoll's departure, seconds from the end, followed his reckless challenge on Morrison.
In the end, Robbie Neilson, the Hearts manager, would have been mightily relieved as Forfar ended the night as unfortunate heroes.
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules here