BACK-PASS BERRA WON'T PASS BUCK

PAUL THIRD

Hearts defender Christophe Berra insists he will learn from the mistake he made which led to Caley Thistle's penalty.

The under-strength home side, following a bright first-half display, fell away as the more experienced Inverness took control.

The result came as no surprise to Berra. He said: "There were only 10 of us training on Friday - all young boys. I did think the game would be called off, but the SPL said no and we had to get on with it.

"A lot of the boys have not played for two or three weeks because of the flu. We knew it was going to be a hard game as Inverness have been in form recently. We had a lot of under-19 boys in the team, but they did well.

"We can all learn from this - myself included. I should have cleared the ball instead of passing it back to Craig Gordon. Barry Wilson got to the ball first. It was disappointing for me, but the manager has told me not to be downhearted about it."

Berra's manager John Robertson was disappointed his plea to have the game postponed was denied.

The former Caley Thistle manager believes his starting 11 showed that Hearts were right to ask for a postponement.

Robertson said: "I don't want to take anything away from Caley Thistle. They put in a good performance and the win will help nudge them closer to safety. But it was a tough shift for everyone here. We had only one fit midfielder and that's where we lost the game as Caley Thistle bossed the midfield.

"We had six forwards playing and I think it proved our point. We were not trying to pull the wool over anyone's eyes. We had 23 players out and, of the 22 left, seven of them had not even played for the reserves.

"We put out the strongest team we had available, but clearly it was not good enough.

"No disrespect to those who played, but if I had put that team out three days before a cup tie we would have been fined for being understrength.

"Somebody should be asked to explain the decision to our supporters. They paid good money to watch the game and they were short-changed."

Taken from the Press and Journal