Inverness CT 0 - 0 Hearts

FRANK GILFEATHER, at Caledonian Stadium March 13 2006

THE disgusted look on the face of Graham Rix at the end of this dire encounter may have reflected the Hearts coach's thoughts on what might happen at Tynecastle this Sunday if his front players fail as dismally as they did at Inverness.

Not only did they not threaten the Caley Thistle goalkeeper, Mark Brown, they did little to disrupt the home defence to the extent that full-back Ross Tokely spent much of his afternoon making attacking runs down the right.

The severity of the gale blowing parallel to the Kessock Bridge towards the Moray Firth was a leveller only in terms of the result.

Hearts were outplayed and out-thought by a side desperate for a top-six finish and in which Richie Hart excelled.

It was from the midfield that Hart called the shots and showed how ready he was to shrug off the stigma of inconsistency. He battled impressively against a team aspiring to be the second-best in the land.

Certainly, his two second-half shots were worthy of winning any game, though he would have admired the agility and dexterity of Craig Gordon in producing world-class saves to prevent the Tynecastle side from going under.

Takis Fyssas was content yesterday to push Saturday's stumble behind him as he and his colleagues focussed on Sunday's crucial 90 minutes against Rangers where the "prize" of SPL runners-up and with it that coveted place in next season's Champions' League, is up for grabs.

The former Panathinaikos full-back admitted he had never before experienced such gale force conditions and was pleased that, despite their less than acceptable performance, Hearts had emerged with a valuable point, even though Rangers edged their way towards them in the league table, cutting the gap to six points.

"No-one enjoyed this game," said Fyssas. "So, let's go to Tynecastle on Sunday and enjoy our football and put what happened at Inverness out of minds.

"Sunday's game is really a big one for us. Both Hearts and Rangers are big teams and at Tynecastle we are very good and will be hard to beat. We need all three points and I believe we will play well and take the victory.

"We haven't been playing as well as we can in recent times but the most important thing is that we are still taking points and, in my experience, that is what matters. Nobody really remembers if you played well. They remember if you won or lost."

His manager highlighted the absence of key players – Steven Pressley, Rudi Skacel, Edgaras Jankauskas and Julien Brellier – as a legitimate reason for their failure to produce their best form at Inverness, although he was grateful to have in goal someone as able as Gordon.

Charlie Christie, the Caley Thistle head coach, summed up proceedings by stating it was patently obvious that his men deserved to win but for two exceptional stops by Gordon.

"For us to dominate a game against a team of Hearts' calibre was tremendous for our players," he said.

"It was just frustrating we didn't get the goal our play deserved."

His counterpart would not have disagreed with that assessment.

Taken from the Herald