A cracker from Nick Kalmer gave Heart the advantage before a Gerald Sibon penalty secured the points at the death.

Speaking after the game, van't Schip suggested  a 4-0 thrashing by Brisbane Roar in September, appeared to have been the turning point.

"The last four games after the Brisbane game we proved that we became more a team and maybe we needed that big loss there to wake up," the Dutch coach told Fox Sports.

"Now you can see that everybody's matching together, working together, they know from each other what they have to do and that's a good thing."