Fairytale ending for Inverness

Where there is drama and controversy in Scottish football, Heart of Midlothian seem never to be far from the epicentre. From a spectacular high the previous weekend, when they thumped Rangers in stylish fashion, to the low of losing not only their lead to Inverness Caledonian Thistle but three points as Craig Brewster, Inverness’s prodigal player-manager, took a hand in matters and fired home the winner with just seconds remaining.

So much for the drama. The controversy surrounded the half-time decision by Hearts to replace the effervescent Andrew Driver, their most influential player in an opening 45 minutes that saw them go in front, thanks to his 34th-minute shot which ricocheted off Ian Black and into the Inverness midfield player’s own net.

Why then, did Driver remain behind when the Tynecastle men took to the field for what turned out to be a pulsating second phase in which Dennis Wyness equalised for the home side before Brewster, who entered the fray with five minutes remaining, hooked Alan Morgan’s pass into the visitors’ net from eight yards?

Robbie Neilson, the Hearts right-back, was as puzzled as anyone when the news was imparted in the dressing-room during the break, though Stephen Frail, the assistant head coach, insisted after the game that the decision was not his but that of Anatoly Korobochka and Angel Chervekov, a kind of Hale and Pace duo described as “the management” and imported by the club’s major shareholder, Vladimir Romanov.

“He wasn’t injured and it was just a tactical decision,” Neilson said yesterday. “I don’t know what the reason behind it was and we were a little bit baffled as well. Driver was playing great, he helped to get the first goal and he was tormenting them for the whole of the first half. They’ve made the decision and we just need to abide with it, because the player who comes on in his place should be up to scratch.

“We’ve good depth to our squad, but personally, if someone is doing well during the first half, then I would keep them on. There may be some reason behind it and we have a big game on Tuesday so perhaps they are thinking ahead to that. But they should really be thinking about the game of the day.

“Andy played the first half, he was probably our best player and then he got taken off at half-time. Hopefully, he is going to be a big player for us this season and he will be confident. The rest of us just need to take a long, hard look at ourselves.”

No ambiguity there, then, though Brewster, in his first home league game back after a disappointing spell as player-manager at Dundee United and an excellent few months as a centre forward at Aberdeen, admitted that had Laryea Kingston’s late 22-yard free kick gone into the Inverness net and not hit the post, the visitors would have gone back to Edinburgh happy.

For Barry Wilson, himself in the latter stages of his career and a key performer in Saturday’s victory, is was a fairytale ending to a match his side deserved to win because of their second-half display and to take their first points of the season.

“It was a fantastic ending,” he said last night. “You could not have written the script for the manager in his first home game back to come on and score a goal like that. It was great. We got the break when Kingston’s free kick came off the post and, hopefully, that’s the turning point of the season for us. The manager is a great person to come on. His goal was spectacular and I’d love to say he hits goals like that every day in training but his shooting last week was hopeless.”

The joke will not be lost on Brewster who will claim he saves his best to score the winner in the final minute.

Inverness Caledonian Thistle (4-4-2): M Fraser 7 — R Tokely 9, P McGuire 7, G Munro 8, R McBain 7 — D Cowie 8, R Duncan 7, I Black 7, B Wilson 8 (sub: A Morgan, 85min) — M Niculae 7 (sub: C Brewster, 85), D Wyness 7. Substitutes not used: Z Malkowski, R Hastings, D McDonald, A Macdonald, I Vigurs. Booked: Wilson, McGuire, Duncan.

Heart of Midlothian (4-4-2): S Banks 7 — R Neilson 7, I Tall 7, C Berra 7, L Wallace 7 — K Ivaskevicius 6, L Kingston 7, M Zaliukas 6, A Driver 7 (sub: M Stewart, 46 6) — A Ksanavicius 6, (sub: M Pospisil, 69 6) A Velicka 6 (sub: C Elliot, 46 6).

Referee M Tumilty

Attendance 4,918

Taken from timesonline.co.uk