Hearts 2 Inverness 0

Jamie Walker continued his goalscoring streak as Hearts moved to 50 points for the season with a comfortable 2-0 win over Inverness.

The midfielder netted in his fourth consecutive Premiership game after latching on to Arnaud Djoum's searching pass to get in behind a packed Caley Thistle defence in the 35th minute at Tynecastle.

Inverness had not got going as an attacking force before Abiola Dauda capitalised on Greg Tansey's mistake to give the home side a cushion within eight minutes of the restart.

The victory moves Hearts six points behind second-placed Aberdeen while Caley Thistle remain in the bottom six.

Inverness looked content to sit in from the start and they frustrated Hearts for long spells of the first half.

The first chance fell for Dauda after Walker had brought down Alim Ozturk's diagonal ball, but Danny Devine threw himself in the way of the striker's shot. Hearts continued to probe patiently. Prince Buaben had a shot saved and right-back Liam Smith - deputising impressively for the injured Callum Paterson - played a one-two with Gavin Reilly and fired a left-footed shot from 20 yards which just cleared the bar.

A touch of desperation crept into the home side when Ozturk shot from the edge of the centre circle, although Owain Fon Williams had to watch the bounce carefully before clutching the ball.

The breakthrough came following another diagonal ball to Walker, who took down Djoum's 50-yard pass on his foot, kept it away from two Inverness defenders, nipped round Williams and squeezed a shot inside the near post.

Caley Thistle had to come out and attack after the interval but they were caught out after one of their first attempts broke down.

Tansey tried to play the ball back to Williams from the halfway line but under-hit the pass and Dauda pounced before rounding the goalkeeper and finding the empty net.

Inverness, who missed the suspended Ross Draper, plugged away without looking like getting back in the game.

Jordan Roberts shot weakly at home goalkeeper Neil Alexander and Dauda had a good chance to score his fourth Hearts goal, but side-footed straight atWilliams after being set up by Sam Nicholson. Alexander was busier in the final 10 minutes, saving from Carl Tremarco and Iain Vigurs, but it was too little, too late from the visitors.