Hearts were comfortable winners at the Caledonian Stadium

Hearts bounced back to winning ways in Inverness, with Calum Elliot bagging a brace in the Highlands.

Christos Karipidis opened the scoring on 22 minutes when he rose to head home a corner from Andrew Driver.

Ten minutes later, Elliot ran on to Christian Nade's clever cut-back and slammed in a low drive.

Marius Niculae scorned two close range chances for Inverness before Elliot took advantage of poor defending to score with a neat chip on 47 minutes.

Interview: Hearts coach Stevie Frail

Interview: Inverness manager Craig Brewster

Hearts' caretaker manager Stephen Frail wanted a reaction after Wednesday's 4-0 defeat from Rangers.

And, after an edgy start, the visiting players responded with a polished display, albeit against a mis-firing home team.

Despite enjoying some sustained spells of pressure, Inverness were only able to direct one shot towards goal and even then, Russell Duncan's 13th-minute effort from distance rose well over the crossbar.

Hearts were finding it difficult to create anything in attack, hampered by playing into a strong wind but Nade engineered room for a low drive, which Michael Fraser did well to tip away to safety.

However, the goalkeeper was left floundering at the resulting corner as he missed Driver's delivery, allowing the unopposed Karipidis to head into an empty net from close range.

Elliot drove a searing shot over the bar from 25 yards out shortlybefore he scored his first league goal for Hearts in over two years.

Nade made a surging run which began with a cute nutmeg on Grant Munro.

The powerful striker then flicked the ball past Duncan's attempted sliding tackle and proceeded to knock a cross to Elliot, who steered the ball low into the corner.

Caley Thistle rallied at the close of the first half and Niculae headed over when well placed before hooking Ross Tokely's driven cross wide from another promising position.

Within two minutes of the restart Caley Thistle's hopes of trying to take a point from the game were destroyed, as a blunder from Ian Black gifted Hearts a third goal.

The midfielder's terrible attempted back-pass lacked the required pace and the Elliot intercepted.

Some desperate defending stopped the initial danger, but when the ball broke back to Elliot he calmly clipped a neat effort over the stranded Fraser to score in style.

Fraser later made an acrobatic save to keep out a thumping volley from Ruben Palazuelos and Elliot squandered a good chance for a hat-trick when he headed wide.

Inverness CT: Fraser, Tokely, McGuire, Munro, Hastings, Imrie, Black (Proctor 73), Duncan, Cowie (McAllister 83), Paatelainen (Wyness 45), Niculae. Subs Not Used: Malkowski, McBain, Kerr, Vigurs.

Booked: Tokely.

Hearts: Banks, Neilson, Karipidis, Berra, Wallace, Mikoliunas (Screpis 72), Jonsson, Palazuelos, Driver (Ivaskevicius 64), Nade (Beniusis 84), Elliot. Subs Not Used: Ridgers, Zaliukas, Tall, Glen.

Booked: Mikoliunas, Beniusis.

Goals: Karipidis 22, Elliot 33, 47.

Att: 4,489

Ref: A Freeland