Caley Thistle 1 Hearts 0

From ROBERT MARTIN at Caledonian Stadium

KENNY GILLET knew Caley would shatter Hearts just from watching the freezing Jambos' warm-up.

The French defender branded the conditions in Inverness the worst he'd ever played in.

But he admitted he loved every minute in the howling wind and rain because he could see how much the visitors hated it.

Shane Sutherland's 49th- minute header was all it took to separate the sides.

But there was a world of difference between them when it came down to spirit and attitude.

Put simply, Terry Butcher's Caley side fancied it and Paulo Sergio's Jambos didn't.

Gillet, brought up in a slightly balmier climate in the south of France, was praying the Inverness pitch would pass referee George Salmond's inspection less than an hour before kick-off.

He said: "An hour before the game we were sitting in the dressing room and we weren't sure the game was definitely going to go ahead.

"The ref had already been out for a look at the pitch and then we heard people saying he wanted to have another look.

"We didn't want the game to be off. We've started to win games and we didn't want that to stop. We wanted to keep trying to climb the league.

"As soon as they told us we could go out and do our warm-up we knew the game would be on and that we would win it.

"Straight away you could see Hearts didn't fancy it just from the way they were doing their warm-up. That was all right for us because we did.

"I come from Bordeaux and I can honestly say that's the worst weather I've ever played football in, especially the second half when the wind really started to blow.

"A few times here last year it was pretty bad, but this was really bad.

"But like the gaffer said, we love this weather. We are used to conditions like that, so we were quite happy."

Caley, with the wind at their backs, started the better side and Gillet had a goal chalked off for offside.

He added: "It would have been my first competitive senior goal.

"I think it was Nick Ross who was offside, so I pulled him up and we had a little fight in the tunnel after the game!"

Ross also went close with a curling effort, while Jamie Hamill's long-range effort for Hearts clipped the crossbar.

Caley continued to have the upper hand after the break and Jonny Hayes made a fool of Andy Webster before setting up Sutherland to put them in front.

The midfielder then saw a cross come back off the post after the flight of the ball caught out Marian Kello.

But Hearts should have had a penalty late on when sub David Templeton was caught by Josh Meeking's trailing leg.

Caley boss Butcher has now seen his side pick up ten points out of 12.

He said: "We're delighted because a lot of people worked hard to get this game on.

"People might say that we played the conditions very well, and sometimes we tend to do that because we are used to the weather up here.

"For me, only one team wanted to win it and one team had the right attitude."