Inverness Beaten by League leaders

On a day that could well have been spoiled by the weather, league leaders Hearts came to Inverness and secured the three points and their seventh league win of the season.

Hearts started brighter forcing Mark Brown into a couple of early saves, and in the 28^th minute their determination paid off when a throw in found Rudi Skacel on the edge of the Inverness box, his turn and low drive was enough to beat Mark Brown and send Hearts into a lead. This seemed to kick start the ICT team into action with both Ross Tokely and Barry Wilson making good runs down the flanks but the final ball always to be blocked by the Hearts defence. In the 41^st minute Craig Dargo felt he had equalised after Darren Dods had guided the ball towards the back post, with Gordon beaten Dargo tapped the ball into an empty net. However the linesman seemed to be in a good position and it was disallowed for being offside.

In the second half some excellent defending and strong midfield work was needed by Inverness as Hearts tried for the second of the day. This was shown by Darren Proctor who held his own very well in the midfield and looked sharp even though he has not had a regular start in the first team. During the second half Hearts had a claim for a penalty but the referee who was close to the incident waved away the alleged hand ball.

But for the clinical finishing of Rudi Skacel I feel that Inverness were unlucky not to have finished the game with a point, if Craig Dargo had not taken a touch when Dods had put the ball towards the goal it might well have been different!

That said Hearts were a strong team today and they ground out a win against a much improved ICT side that were beaten 2-1 by Motherwell just last week.

Man of the match – Darren Proctor.

Excellent shift by the young utility player, he never shirked a tackle and his strong wing play was good to watch.