Hearts captain Marius Zaliukas came in from the cold to face Aberdeen in his side's 1-0 win at Pittodrie.
Jambos boss Jim Jefferies is hopeful the contractual issues that have kept the Lithuanian out of his plans will soon be resolved. Kevin Kyle headed the only goal of the game for Hearts as they won out in a physical affair in the north east.
"It's not done and dusted (Zaliukas' future)," said Jefferies. "There's been a lot of progress and verbally I think we're almost there but we still have to cross the t's and dot the i's. I said the green light would always be when he was close to agreeing a deal. He's a Kaunas player and we've been trying to make him a Hearts player long term, but that's just the way it works there."
Jefferies added: "Aberdeen brought back a few players after their last result and there were one or two they said wouldn't be back in time but were pushed forward, so we knew it was a big game for them.
"I thought there was very little in it in the first half but if anybody controlled it a bit more, we did. We got the goal early in the second half and were unlucky not to go on and get two or three."
Dons boss Mark McGhee refused to criticise his team, and pointed to a single error that allowed Kyle to bag the winner.
"I'm disappointed but I thought it would be a game where one goal decided it," said McGhee.
"They got it and I can't argue with that.
"It was a poor goal to lose from our point of view - a simple cross, Zander [Diamond] got caught underneath it and it ends up in the back of the net. It was disappointing we allowed the cross to come in and didn't deal with it.
"Kevin Kyle is a big presence and he's difficult to defend against. In general I thought we defended really well. The first free header he got was the goal so I'm disappointed with that but generally I thought we competed really well."
Source: PA
