Not an easy trip north

Jim Jefferies anticipates his injury-ravaged squad will face a stern test in Inverness on Saturday. They will travel to the Caledonian Stadium off the back of a 3-0 loss at Celtic and minus the services of club captain Marius Zaliukas, Scotland international Lee Wallace (both knee), Dawid Kucharski (calf), Andrew Driver (knee) and Stephen Elliott (hamstring). Rudi Skacel, who re-signed for the club on Friday, is not expected to be match fit to play a part. Hearts have a win, two draws and a defeat from their opening four games, while Inverness have won one, drawn one and lost two - both at home, to Hamilton and Celtic. Jefferies, though, has been impressed with how Caley Thistle have performed on their return to the top flight and expects a tough encounter as his Hearts side seek to return to winning ways.

Jefferies said: "You've got to give them great credit. All you need to do is ask some of the clubs in the First Division now, like Dunfermline, Dundee, Partick, how difficult it is to come back. To bounce back in the first season shows tremendous motivation. They would've been on a great downer, so to pick them up they've done a fantastic job. They've brought in two or three decent players. They're a decent side who all work hard for each other. Maybe the experience of going down is going to act as a spur. They're a decent side and I don't expect them to be struggling near the bottom like some people predicted."

Terry Butcher's side are without a point at home this season, but Jefferies is cautious ahead of the fixture. He said: "It's never an easy place to go. You can see by the results, nobody ever goes up there and wins very comfortably and a lot of narrow results go against them. The two games they've lost this year, against Celtic and Hamilton, were 1-0 in both games. It's going to be a very, very tough match."

The Inverness game is the first of three in seven days , with the Co-operative Insurance Cup clash at Falkirk to be played on Tuesday night, followed by the league fixture with Motherwell. Jefferies will be in the stand to watch the Motherwell game after being sent from the touchline at Parkhead, but Skacel is optimistic of being involved, while the manager hopes to have resolved Zaliukas' contract dispute by then. Zaliukas has been on loan at Tynecastle since the summer of 2006 from Kaunas but the agreement expires at the end of December and uncertainty over the defender's future remains. Zaliukas is currently out with a knee injury and Jefferies hopes the Lithuania international's situation can be sorted in the meantime. Eggert Jonsson is set to continue in the centre of defence, with Darren Barr again playing right-back and Ruben Palazuelos filling in at left-back. Striker Elliott could return against Motherwell, but winger Driver is not yet training with the first-team squad. Midfielder Ian Black signed for Hearts from Inverness after Caley Thistle's relegation and is looking forward to returning north and hopes to cap the game with victory. He said: "It would be great to go up there and score. I'm looking to score goals, but I'd want to take the win before that and I'd be happy with anybody scoring."