The news that Emmanuel Adebayor and Iago Falque had signed for Tottenham was the topic of conversation at White Hart Lane on Thursday night because events on the north London sod were entertaining but hardly headline news.
Spurs ended this Europa League tie as a contest against Hearts at Tynecastle a week ago when they came away with a comprehensive 5-0 win thanks to goals from Rafael Van der Vaart, Jermain Defoe, Jake Livermore, Gareth Bale and Aaron Lennon.
A similar performance was never going to materialise this time around as a second-string home side failed to create many chances, outside of Harry Kane forcing a smart save from the angle before earning a penalty when he was felled by Jamie MacDonald, only for his firm effort to be kept out well by the Hearts 'keeper low to his right.
The Scottish side struck the bar early on through Gordon Smith's turn-and-shot and Roman Pavlyuchenko also brought a save out of MacDonald late on with a long-range curler as Harry Redknapp's men edged the game overall.