ICT beaten by Hearts
Hearts 2, Caley Thistle 1

CALEY Thistle remain at the foot of the SPL table after succumbing to Hearts in a blustery Scottish Capital.

For the third game in succession, manager Terry Butcher named an unchanged starting line-up with Greg Tansey able to take his place in the team after having the red card he was shown in the 2-0 home defeat by Celtic last weekend rescinded following a successful appeal.

Hearts had not scored for four straight games going into this encounter, but Ryan McGowan's persistence in not letting the ball go out so nearly paid off as his cut back eventually fell to David Templeton who fired it straight at Ryan Esson from 18 yards.

Caley Thistle's response was to go on the attack themselves and following good work by Tansey, Andrew Shinnie's dipping effort from 25 yards narrowly evaded the top corner.

Marius Zaliukas was then guilty of gifting possession to Jonny Hayes and his pass put Gregory Tade clean through on goal, but the Frenchman was denied by Marian Kello as he tried to take the ball around the Hearts goalkeeper.

Towards the end of the half, Esson was again well positioned to save from Ryan Stevenson, although he was almost deceived by David Obua's speculative shot from 30 yards that looped up in the ait following a deflection before just dropping the wrong side of the post.

Butcher would have been reasonably happy going in at the interval, but within barely a minute of the restart his Caley Thistle team found themselves trailing.

A ball played in to the feet of Rudi Skacel still left the forward with plenty to do from 12 yards, yet with the angle against him a struck a sweet effort beyond Esson and into the bottom corner of the goal to leave Inverness still searching for their first clean sheet this season.

Caley Thistle, however, recovered their composure and deservedly drew level in the 58th minute.

Hayes, who won a free-kick, took the resultant set piece and his delivery was perfect for Ross Tokely to head home from six yards.

Inverness then had a wonderful chance to take the lead as more hesitant Hearts defending allowed Tade to set up Andrew Shinnie. His shot was well saved by Kello, but the rebound fell to Hayes, who from 10 yards could only blast it well over the crossbar.

Both teams were committed to going forward in search of goals and only the fingertips of Esson kept out John Sutton's shot from the edge of the penalty area.

From the resultant corner, however, Hearts regained the lead with 14 minutes to play. Templeton was the architect as he whipped in a cross that was powered into the roof of the net from inside the six-yard box by the unmarked Eggert Jonsson.

As this contest edged towards full-time, Templeton came agonisingly close to putting the game out of Caley Thistle's reach with a searing volley that found the side netting.

Tokely had another header late on that went a yard wide of the upright, but it was Hearts who prevailed.

HEARTS - Kello, McGowan, Webster, Zaliukas, Hamill, Templeton (Robinson, 90), Jonsson, Obua, Skacel, Sutton (Taouil, 80), Stevenson (Mrowiec, 46). Subs unused: Elliott, Novikovas, G. Smith, MacDonald. Booked: Jonsson, Skacel.

CALEY THISTLE - Esson; Meekings (Proctor, 73), Gillet, Tokely, Hogg, Davis, Hayes, Tansey, Tade (Sutherland, 90), A. Shinnie (Ross, 82), Foran. Subs unused: Cox, G. Shinnie, Chippendale, Tuffey. Booked: Tokely

Attendance: 12,021.

Referee: C. Thomson.