Inverness defeat Hearts to secure first Premiership victory of campaign
James Vincent set Inverness on the way to their first Ladbrokes Premiership win of the season on Friday evening with a 2-0 triumph over Hearts.
Vincent, on his first appearance since the Scottish Cup final, produced an opportunistic finish four minutes into the second half, and Miles Storey added a debut goal to condemn the Jambos to their second straight loss.
A late red card for Juwon Oshaniwa made things worse for the visitors, who have a game against Aberdeen to contend with next week.
Caley Thistle boss John Hughes made three changes from the side that drew with Dundee a fortnight ago. Josh Meekings, Vincent and Storey all started, with Dani Lopez, Andrea Mbuyi-Mutombo and Iain Vigurs dropping out.
Hearts handed starts to new signing Danny Swanson and 17-year-old Sean McKirdy, while Morgaro Gomis and Billy King missed out.
Neither side had much to shout about in the early periods of the game, with Hearts' half-hearted calls for a penalty on 20 minutes the only source of action. Juanma Delgado nicked the ball off Meekings before claiming he was fouled in the area by Ross Draper. Referee Steven McLean waved it away.
The nearest the hosts went, despite decent spells of possession, was when Danny Williams put through Storey, but his first touch was poor and the ball ran through to Neil Alexander.
Hearts were threatening on the break - particularly through Swanson, who was popping up all over the pitch to run at the home team's back four. His fellow midfielder Sam Nicholson created a promising opening after some positive work down the right flank, only for left-back Oshaniwa to skew wide.
Their first-half play may not have merited a goal but Inverness' first opening of the second period was worthy of taking the lead. After dogged work by Williams down the left, Ryan Christie picked up possession and found a great cut-back for Vincent, who ghosted in to tap home for Caley Thistle's first home goal of the season.
Draper could have doubled the lead after the hour if he had shown a cooler head, the ball getting stuck under his feet as he breezed past Swanson.
Robbie Neilson's side were struggling to create anything and the withdrawal of Swanson and Osman Sow, their liveliest outlets, did nothing to boost their chances of changing that. Jamie Walker shot wide from outside the area and then saw an effort well blocked by David Raven, but Owain Fon Williams was yet to be tested.
Late drama came in the way of Oshaniwa's red card, which appeared to be for an altercation with substitute Tobi Sho-Silva, before Storey's late second from Williams' cross.
Source: PA
