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Claudio Braga and Stephen Kingsley were on target as resurgent Hearts won 2-0 away to misfiring Falkirk to move six points clear at the top of the William Hill Premiership.
Buoyed by ending a four-game run without a victory with last Sunday’s triumph against title rivals Celtic, the Jambos raced into an early lead through Braga.
Hearts – who survived a Bairns penalty claim just before half-time – had to dig deep to keep their advantage intact before substitute Kingsley killed off the Bairns’ hopes of getting back into the game with a brilliant strike in the 77th minute.
Having failed to score in their previous three matches, Falkirk made four changes to the side that lost 3-0 at Hibernian as Sam Hart, Kyrell Wilson, Alfredo Agyeman and Henry Cartwright were all added.
Hearts boss Derek McInnes sent out the same team that started the 2-1 win at Celtic Park and the league leaders got off to the perfect start by opening the scoring after just 65 seconds.
Lawrence Shankland’s powerful shot from just outside the box was tipped on to the underside of the crossbar by Scott Bain and the Falkirk goalkeeper could not recover in time to stop Braga following up to nod home the loose ball from four yards out.
After overcoming this early setback, the Bairns started to gain a foothold and Jambos keeper Alexander Schwolow had to act smartly to clutch a shot from Calvin Miller that took a deflection off Michael Steinwender.
A couple of dangerous deliveries into the Hearts box within a few minutes of each other forced Craig Halkett and then Steinwender to scramble the ball behind for corners.
After a run of four without a win, Hearts have now secured back-to-back victories
The visitors remained a threat, however, and Shankland curled just beyond the far post after being teed up on the left, just inside the box, by Braga.
Shankland then blazed another opportunity over from a tight angle after good work by Alexandros Kyziridis and Braga to set him up.
At the other end, Filip Lissah flashed a shot just wide from 20 yards.
There was a flashpoint two minutes before half-time when Falkirk had a penalty claim waved away.
Wilson raced on to a through ball from Agyeman and rounded Schwolow but Harry Milne slid in to block the attacker’s goalbound effort with his forearm just in front of the line. Following a VAR check, no spot-kick was awarded as the left-back’s arm was deemed by to be tucked into his body.
Just before the hour, Hearts winger Kyziridis saw a shot deflected behind by Hart and from the resulting corner, Braga saw a glancing header tipped wide by Bain.
Kingsley replaced Milne in the 74th minute and rippled the net within three minutes by firing home a superb strike on the bounce from 20 yards out, leaving the travelling support in raptures.
