Hearts miss out on summit chance

Hearts missed the chance to move level on points with second placed Celtic as Inverness Caledonian Thistle held them to a 1-1 draw at Tynecastle in their Scottish Premier League clash Saturday.

The artic conditions blasting Scotland at the moment once again decimated the SPL fixture list with just two matches surviving, allowing Hearts an opportunity to pile the pressure on the Hoops, whose match against Hamilton was called off due to a frozen pitch.

The Jambos had won six successive matches in the league but it was Inverness, unbeaten away for over a year, who took the lead through Grant Munro with a quarter of an hour played.

Hearts were level eight minutes later when Inverness keeper Ryan Esson brought down Stephen Elliott in the box and for the second successive match former Sunderland striker Kevin Kyle converted from the penalty spot.

Kyle, Ryan Stevenson and David Templeton all came close as the home side looked for the winner but Inverness held on for a point.

Kilmarnock moved up to fifth with a 2-1 win over Hibernian at Rugby Park thanks to a Liam Kelly double.

Kelly gave Killie an early lead when he blasted Ben Gordon’s cut-back into the net from the edge of the box.

The pair combined again on the stroke of half-time with Kelly side-footing the ball past Mark Brown.

Hibs forward Derek Riordan gave Colin Calderwood’s men hope when he pulled one back in the 55th minute with a 20-yard strike.

Liam Miller was sent off with seven minutes to go for an off-the-ball incident as the Easter Road side failed to claim a share of the points.

League leaders Rangers’ match against St Mirren at Ibrox was called off due to burst pipes in the stadium while Aberdeen v Motherwell and St Johnstone v Dundee United were postponed due to police worries about supporters travelling to the grounds.