Hearts 0 - 2 Inverness CT

Alan Campbell at Tynecastle

NO praise can be too high for what Craig Brewster has achieved since replacing John Robertson as Caley manager in November. Inverness will surely witness SPL football again next season after another three points were collected and an unbeaten league run stretched to six games.

“Bring on the Celtic,” chanted the visiting fans in reference to Wednesday night’s rearranged game. After taking seven points from Hibs, Rangers and now Hearts, they are entitled to be cocky.

In fairness to the home side, there were mitigating circumstances, even if this latest set-back has cost them dearly in their bid to finish third and re-acquaint themselves with the Uefa Cup. Only 24 hours earlier, their appeal to have the match postponed because of a flu outbreak was turned down by the Premierleague.

“We did what we were told, and played the game,” said Robertson, who was forced to field possibly the youngest ever SPL side. The oldest player was 24-year-old Dennis Wyness, and even he, playing against his old side, was out of position in the midfield. Behind him, Andy Webster, at 22, was the most experienced member of a back four which included 17-year-old full backs Lee Wallace and Jason Thomson.

Even without Hearts’ woes, the pre-match odds of 7-2 against the in-form Caley looked far too big. On Friday afternoon and Saturday morning many punters had spotted an opportunity and plunged in on Brewster’s side, forcing many firms to cut their odds.

With Steven Pressley, Paul Hartley, Jamie McAllister and Stephen Simmons among those laid low by the lurgy, it certainly seemed a golden opportunity for Caley to nail the spectre of relegation once and for all.

The only good news for Hearts, at a time they are finding it increasingly difficult to find, was that Lee Miller was able to shake off his illness and give Robertson’s side a target at which to aim. Rarely has a player slipped so easily into a new team, and with six goals in his first nine games since joining on loan from Bristol City he has given Hearts much-needed punch up front.

The former Falkirk striker’s deft headed flick-ons were the only notable feature of a drab first half in which the visitors seemed curiously reluctant to probe the inexperience of their opponents.

After they had come close to opening the scoring in the 13th minute, when Roy McBain’s downward header from a Stuart Golabek free kick was scooped off the line by Webster, they retreated into a shell which allowed Hearts to settle – particularly right back Thomson who had started very nervously but came on to a game.

With only a 25-yard shot from Joe Hamill providing any respite from the tedium, the near 10,000 crowd were entitled to expect better in the second half, and the visiting contingent, at least, got it.

Ironically, given the paucity of chances earlier, Hearts had four good ones just before and after Darren Dods broke the deadlock in the 55th minute. Christophe Berra and Wyness had just gone close seconds before Caley went ahead.

Richard Hart swung a free kick into the Hearts box and it was met firmly on the forehead by Dods for a textbook central defender’s set-piece goal. No doubt all the sweeter for a former Hibs player, and his first of the season.

There was still life in the home side, as two quick chances at the other end demonstrated, but their afternoon came to a halt in the 72nd minute. Berra marred a productive afternoon by leaving his pass back to Gordon short. Barry Wilson seized the opportunity, but was brought down in the box by Gordon as he attempted to make the most of it.

The goalkeeper escaped with a yellow card, but there was no such respite for his side as Wilson slotted home to, almost certainly, book Caley another SPL season.

Taken from the Sunday Herald