BREWSTER PUTS CALEY SURVIVAL FIRST

Inverness player-manager Craig Brewster insists remaining in the SPL is still their priority even though the Highland club are now just six points behind sixth-placed Motherwell.

Second-half goals from Darren Dods and Barry Wilson gave the Caledonian outfit all three points in a hard-fought encounter in the Capital against a flu-ravaged Hearts side.

Caley can cut the deficit further on 'Well when they host champions Celtic on Wednesday night in a re-arranged league game, but striker Brewster insists they will not be getting carried away.

He said: "When I came to the club the aim was to stay in the Premier League but if we can finish as high as we can I'll be delighted with that.

"My sights are on catching the team ahead of us and that's Kilmarnock, and I'm sure Kilmarnock are keen on catching Motherwell.

"We will go into the game against Celtic full of confidence, I saw them last Sunday against Hibs and I thought they were awesome.

"They scored six today against Dunfermline so they'll be full of confidence but hopefully we can go into the game and cause them a few problems to see how good they really are."

Brewster insists he warned his players before the game that Hearts would still be capable of fielding a strong side despite the fact the Edinburgh club were stripped of 23 players due to the flu.

He added: "I think we were in a no-win situation today, Hearts' problems were well documented.

"I know they would still have a strong side and I expressed that to my players. I think the young guy Jason Thomson is the only player that hadn't played before today.

"I can sympathise with them, we had eight players out with the flu earlier in the season but we were just lucky we had a free week."

Hearts manager John Robertson admits he's disappointed the SPL rejected their request for a postponement, claiming the fans were left short-changed.

He said: "Someone has got some explaining to do to the crowd because they pay their money to see a product but they didn't get that today.

"We proved a point that we didn't have anyone available.

"It's been well documented we had 23 players out. Of the 22 we had available, seven of them were reserve players."

Taken from sportinglife.com