PLAYERS FELT THE PRESSURE - RIX

Hearts head coach Graham Rix admitted anxiety from the home fans affected his players during the goalless draw with Inverness Caledonian Thistle at Tynecastle.

The home side struggled to break down the well organised Highlanders and were booed off at the end after falling three points behind SPL leaders Celtic.

"I was pretty frustrated myself I can assure you," Rix said.

"It's difficult to remain calm and do the right things because you become frantic in your efforts to get the ball forward.

"I understand the frustration of the crowd and the players could hear that frustration from the crowd coming through.

"They are a well organised side and it is one of those games in which you are frightened because when you are forcing the issue they are going to get chances at the other end.

"It needed something like a scruffy goal to win it."

In a hard-fought match blighted by constant stoppages for niggling fouls, Hearts midfielder Paul Hartley compared a tackle by visiting midfielder Ian Black on Jambos defender Robbie Neilson with Michael Essien's controversial lunge at Dietmar Hamann in the Champions League in midweek.

Hartley said: "It was a high challenge. The referee said he didn't see his two feet going in but I don't know how.

"It's probably caught the ball first but if he had caught Robbie first it could have been a bad injury as we saw with Essien during the week against Liverpool."

Inverness midfielder Barry Wilson, who was made skipper in his 250th game for the Highlanders, admitted Black's challenge was overly robust.

He said: "To be honest I didn't have the greatest of views but I think it probably was a little bit dangerous, although Robbie played on so he must have been okay.

"Maybe it was a bit reckless by Ian but I don't think it was in the Essien category.

"The referee gave a throw-in to Hearts so Ian must have won some part of the ball.

"It was right in front of the linesman and the fourth official so if there was anything untoward they had every chance to see it."

Both players felt the visitors should have had a second-half penalty when Wilson's cross struck Neilson's arm in the Hearts box.

Hartley said: "Robbie was only a couple of yards away from their player who crossed it but sometimes the referee will give it and sometimes not. We got a wee break because at the other end we would have been looking for the penalty."

Wilson added a Ross Tokely 'goal' which was ruled out for offside to his list of grievances.

He said: "I definitely think we should have won the game. We had the better chances and a couple of poor decisions went against us.

"There is no way Ross Tokely was offside when he scored and I think we should have had a penalty. I tried to play the ball into Craig Dargo and I thought it was a pretty blatant handball."

Taken from sportinglife.com