John Aloisi scored the opening goal of the contest on 58 minutes, before Gerald Sibon sealed the result on 83 minutes, strengthening Heart's grip on sixth place on the A-League table.

Heart are on 30 points in sixth from 24 games, behind fifth-placed rivals Victory on 32 points from 22 games, and ahead of Wellington (26 points from 22 games) and Newcastle (25 points from 20 games) in seventh and eighth respectively.

Van 't Schip said: "We will certainly be there with a big chance for the finals. Newcastle, Wellington and Melbourne Victory though have games in hand, which made today's result important.

"Our discipline was good and we did not give a lot away, then after the first goal by John, we had a lot more room to play.

"With the bench we have, the depth in our squad is strong, and when you bring players like Gerald Sibon, Alex Terra and Michael Beauchamp, it helps."

Goalscorer Aloisi told FoxSports that the Heart players treated the Fury clash like a final.

"We had that bad run of seven games without a win, so we knew this one was like a final for us," Aloisi said. "We needed to win if we're to stay in contention of the finals."

The result means Heart have now three matches in a row.

Aloisi added: "I thought we played pretty well today, we deserved the win. Let's hope we can continue this run.

"I thought our full-backs were brilliant today. Michael Marrone and Aziz (Behich) they played really well, got forward well, and if you keep getting balls in the box eventually one is going to be good and one will go in."

Heart have a week off before their next match away to Perth Glory on January 15.

Aloisi continued: "We'll come back refreshed and hopefully we'll have a good run towards the end of the season and continue this winning run of ours."