HIBS left the Highlands last night still without a victory on Inverness Caledonian Thistle's home turf but having scored their first Premier League goal at the Caledonian Stadium.

A second-half surge saw the visitors assume control, with Colin Nish grabbing the equaliser with an opportunist strike inside the first minute of the second half then stating that the Highlands were lucky territory for him.

"When I played with Kilmarnock," he said, "I always seemed to score here every time and I felt before the match that I would be on target again.

"We created loads of chances and on another day we could have won by four or five goals. I think the things the manger's telling us to do are bearing fruit now."

A sizzling move by the home side in only the third minute would have given them a much-desired early lead but for the acrobatic heroics of Hibs goalkeeper, Andy McNeil.

The move started with Doug Imrie's free-kick which was chipped into the penalty area by Ian Black for Adam Rooney to nod on to Ross Tokely. The Inverness captain's close-range header looked netbound until McNeil launched himself to touch the ball over the bar and the Easter Road men breathed a sigh of relief.

The slickness of the passing from the visitors was impressive, if less direct than that of their opponents, whose route to goal was more purposeful.

It was an approach which paid dividends after 21 minutes when Black's long pass found Don Cowie who left Paul Hanlon wrong-footed before cutting inside and firing a ferocious drive into the Hibs net off the legs of Hibs captain Rob Jones.

Then, just on the half-hour mark Nish blew a golden chance to level, booting the ball over the bar with only Michael Fraser, the Caley Thistle goalkeeper, to beat.

This was not what Mixu Paatelainen needed from the striker and the Hibs manager looked shocked just two minutes later when Fraser failed to hold a 20-yard effort from Steven Fletcher, spilling the ball to Dean Shiels.The goalkeeper, however, made amends by blocking the midfield player's weak shot.

Concern over the number of chances the visitors had been carving out would have been expressed in the home dressing room at the interval but Craig Brewster could not have envisaged the rapidity of the equaliser less than a minute into the second half.

Shiels's shot ricocheted off a defender and Nish reacted quickest to latch on to the loose ball and fire it past Fraser into the net.

Six minutes later Nish's looping header from an Alan O'Brien chip into the area rebounded off Fraser's far post as Inverness lived dangerously.

At the other end, Phil McGuire's header from a corner kick almost put Caley in front had it not been for another McNeil touch.

As the game entered the latter stages both teams chased a winner but in the end they settled for a draw.

Inverness substitutions: Djebi-Zadi for Imrie 58, Vigurs for McBain 65, Wilson for Barrowman 80. Not used: Esson, McAllister, Sutherland, Wood. Booked: Tokely 69, Black 84, Hastings 90.

Hibernian substitutions: Morais for O'Brien 65, Stevenson for Hanlon 80, Pinau for Keenan 89. Not used: Grof, Murray, Campbell, Canninig. Referee: E Smith Att: 4022