Gordon saves the day for faint-hearts

Inverness CT 0 - 0 Hearts
Frank Gilfeather at Tulloch Caledonian Stadium

HEARTS saw their march towards Europe falter yesterday as Inverness Caledonian Thistle produced one of their best home performances of the season to keep alive hopes of a top six finish in the Premierleague.

They had goalkeeper Craig Gordon to thank for keeping a clean sheet against opponents who kept him busy through an often fraught 90 minutes for him and his defence.

The draw flattered the Tynecastle men who were bustled out of their stride by Thistle, who displayed a determination that shone through the grey skies above the Highland capital.

The conditions were the real winner, however, as Hearts manager Graham Rix said that even Barcelona would have struggled to have coped with a strong, swirling wind throughout which made fluent, passing football an impossible dream.

“Conditions were impossible,” he said. “You ask any footballer, the worst condition you can play in is the wind. Today, Barcelona would not have been able to play football. A battling performance, that’s what it was. I am not disconsolate. My players kept going right to the end and I couldn’t ask for more.”

Rix saw substitute Jamie McAllister, who came on midway through the second half for Chris Hacket, stretchered off five minutes from time after twisting his knee in a tackle with man of the match Richie Hart.

McAllister is expected to be fit for the home tie against Rangers next Sunday, but he will miss the Scotland Future international against Turkey at Inverness in midweek.

Inverness head coach Charlie Christie said it was patently obvious to anyone watching that his side deserved full points and that only Craig Gordon’s agility in prevented Caley doing so.

“Barring two exceptional saves from Gordon,” he said, “we would have gone in at half time leading. But to play a team of Hearts’ calibre and to dominate them for long chunks was tremendous as far as our players were concerned. It was just frustrating that we didn’t get the winner that our play deserved.”

How right he was. Caley’s Mark Brown had only two simple saves to make over the piece and had an extremely quiet second half.

The wind might have been a spoiler as both sides attempted to get to grips with it but, perhaps because they had an all-British side, it was Caley who coped best. They hit high balls beyond the Tynecastle full backs for their strikers, Craig Dargo and Graham Bayne, to chase though it was Hart, in the middle of the pitch, who stamped his authority on play.

The visitors sought a more technical route to goal in the opening half-hour, but only a header from Takis Fyssas and a 20-yard drive from Roman Bednar brought Caley’s Brown into action.

Indeed, it was the home side that breathed life into proceedings as two efforts from Hart within a couple of minutes of each other, showed why Gordon is a cut above Scotland’s other keepers.

The first, in the 37th minute saw the Thistle midfielder race on to a slide-rule pass from Alan Morgan before hitting a ferocious shot which was beaten down by Gordon. The goalkeeper then produced a second superb reflex stop when Hart’s bullet of a shot from Dargo's cut-back looked certain to hit the net.

The aggression displayed by Caley just before the interval was a feature of their approach in the first few minutes of the second 45 minutes and a wind-assisted 35-yard free-kick from Hart almost proved too tricky for Gordon, the goalkeeper having to adjust his footing to cope.

It was to mark the beginning of an aggressive, crowd-pleasing show from Caley as they pummelled Hearts’ defence, refusing to allow them to settle on the ball and winning a series of corners. The Tynecastle centre-backs Andy Webster and Christophe Berra, the latter a stand-in for the virus-hit club captain Steven Pressley, looked uncomfortable in trying to hold the Caley front men.

Hearts seemed to have few answers to the many crosses, from Ross Tokely in particular, that entered their goal area, and a header from Bayne and a shot from Dargo again kept Gordon busy around his goal line.

With Rangers closing the gap on Hearts to six points yesterday, next Sunday’s tie between the sides at Tynecastle will take on additional significance as Hearts seek to underline their determination to finish the season as runners-up in the league.

Taken from the Sunday Herald