Webster sees red in battle with Inverness

The erstwhile Highland manager used to say that they wouldn’t go down without a fight, and yesterday his new club were afforded ample proof. There was no love lost in a crabby match punctured by two dubious penalties and numerous bouts of finger-wagging, but thinking about survival for Craig Brewster’s team no longer seems overly romantic. “I thought we controlled the game,” said Brewster. “I’m delighted with the performance and the workrate. That ’s really all I can ask.”

His team have so far come up with the requisite answers to the questions that were raised in the aftermath of the 37-year-old’s surprise appointment last month. This draw, and the one they prized off Rangers last week, have reeled in what are effectively bonus points from fixtures that might have been considered write-offs. This was just the sort of day where his urbanity might well have told amidst the prevailing unfulfilling bluster.

Neither side was short on backbone, yet when they eventually came to fleshing things out, the meaty blows were delivered by hands, not feet. And where the strikers had struggled to pack a punch, the other departments made a decent fist of it. Andy Webster, Patrick Kisnorbo and Liam Keogh have all been known to join in with attacks, but opposition goalmouths rather than players have generally been the target.

Webster’s intervention was the most uncompromising: an alleged stamp that sent Graham Bayne shuddering into the trackside wall.

The Scotland centre-back was himself brushing past it when the quarrel abated, headed for the dressing room. Referee Calum Murray perhaps only didn’t send Keogh and Kisnorbo to accompany him for fear of further bickering. “The referee was 100% right as always,” said Robertson. “Two players crashed into each other in the dugout and had a kick out at each other. The fourth official saw nothing, the linesman saw nothing, but the referee saw something.” Webster later claimed there had been no intent in his thrust, a stance backed up by Bayne.

After the brawl came the brilliance. Juanjo, an occasional dabbler in the former, gave the more productive side of his gamut an airing, fighting a route past Jamie McAllister to stroke Richie Hart’s cross just the wrong side of the far post. Seconds before the interval, Craig Gordon staged a sprawling recovery mission to clasp Bayne’s flashing near-post header as it swelled towards the net.

Mark Brown, in the Inverness goal, thought his timing had been similarly precise when he attempted to pull out of a challenge with Graham Weir as the Hearts substitute homed in on Mark de Vries’s flick header. Murray, however, deemed him to have gnawed at Weir’s heels with sufficient force to trigger the striker swooning as if felled by sniper fire. Paul Hartley bulleted the penalty low to Brown’s right.

Hearts had not had a single escapade of note into enemy territory prior to the goal, a point not lost on the manager. “I thought Caley were hungrier,” he said. “In the second half we showed our spirit, though, and we actually played better with 10 men than 11.”

Inverness went gunning for their visitors, their gripes giving them a shot in the arm. They forced a quick-fire equaliser, Juanjo taking advantage of another overindulgent spot-kick award as Michael Stewart, at worst, chafed the Spaniard’s leg just inside the area.

“Both penalties were a bit soft,” smiled Brewster. “For the second one, I gave Robbo a smile, and he gave me a growl.” Those expressions might have been reversed in the final minute, as Hearts came close to filching a winner. Steven Pressley, one of the few to keep his head throughout, again used it productively to butt the ball towards the top corner after it had skittered around the box for a time. Roy McBain, one of the more diminutive protagonists, propelled himself heavenwards to clear.

Inverness continue to hold their own in the domain of the big men.

STAR MAN: Ross Tokely (Inverness)

Player ratings: Inverness: Brown 6, Tokely 8 (McCaffrey 90min, 6), Dods 7, Munro 6 (Hastings 45min, 6), Golabek 7, Hart 7 (Wilson 72min, 6), Keogh 6, Duncan 6, McBain 7, Juanjo 7, Bayne 7

Hearts: Gordon 6, Neilson 6, Webster 5, Pressley 7, McAllister 6, Hamill 6 (Berra 85min, 6), Hartley 6, Kisnorbo 6, Wyness 5 (Weir 45min, 6), De Vries 7, Pereira 6 (Stewart 45min, 7)

Scorers: Inverness: Juanjo 67pen Hearts: Hartley 61pen Booked: Keogh 32, Kisnorbo 32, Brown 61, Golabek 63

Sent-off: Webster 32

Referee: C Murray

Attendance: 2,011

Taken from the Sunday Mail