Congratulations Inverness

Inverness Caledonian Thistle manager Terry Butcher was full of praise for his side as they extended their unbeaten away run into another year with the 1-1 draw against Hearts yesterday. Butcher said: ''It's an incredible achievement for the players - 2010 undefeated (away from home). That's a year plus now in the league. Just marvellous. It's a wonderful achievement and they're just a special group of players, they really are.'' Caley Thistle drew at Celtic before a 1-1 draw with Rangers last weekend and consolidated their fourth-placed position with the point at Tynecastle ahead of the home games with St Mirren on Boxing Day and Kilmarnock on 29 December.The last time they lost on the road was at Partick Thistle en route to winning promotion last term and Butcher conceded his side were fortunate their record remained intact. He went on: ''Hearts are a good side. They've got good quality players. (David) Templeton I thought was unbelievable. They put a lot of crosses into the box. I thought we had to defend really well, lots of questions asked about us, but great spirit in the team. 'They did batter us and you've got to hold your hand up and say we were hanging on at the end. But we hung on. It was a tough match but we came through unscathed.''

For his part Hearts manager was disappointed his side could not take advantage of Celtic's game being off to draw level in second place in the table. Hearts beat Motherwell 2-1 on Tuesday night, taking their run to 15 goals scored and one conceded in securing six wins from six and eight out of nine. But Hearts' bid for a seventh straight win and a ninth victory in 10 games was ended by Caley Thistle, who could have stolen a win when Marian Kello was forced to save Russell Duncan's effort on the counter attack. Jefferies was happy with the performance of his side, who next travel to Kilmarnock - the last team to beat Hearts, 3-0 in October - on Boxing Day. The Hearts manager said: ''I thought the team were outstanding today and did everything you could've asked of them apart from putting the ball in the net. 'It was just one of those days when it just wouldn't go in. As a manager you can't have any complaints about the way our team played - their attitude, will and determination to win the game. 'And it might've cost us when they broke away. I would probably have cut my throat if it had gone in because it would have been the biggest robbery or injustice. 'Terry knows they got a bit of a roasting, but fair due to them, they stood firm and nothing went our way in front of goals. 'I thought it was one of our best home performances of the season and it just shows you when you're going as well as Inverness are away from home you have to get some luck on the way and they got loads of it today. 'There's nobody who will have given them a harder time of it than in that second half.''

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