Robertson is a stand-out stand-in.

No bite in Hearts' tackling

james traynor

3 Dec 1990

TREVOR Steven, along with Richard Gough and Ian Ferguson, is expected to warm up in a reserve game at Clydebank on Wednesday before resuming normal first-team duties against St Johnstone on Saturday, and the likelihood is that Sandy Robertson, who has been maintaining a degree of subtlety in Rangers midfield during the English internationalist's absence, will be asked to stand down.

However, the 19-year-old will return.

He is much too good to be kept kicking his heels in the wings.

He is an exciting prospect and it will do him no harm to be left out for a spell.

Many promising players have been lost because too much was demanded of them too early in their careers and Rangers owe it to the game in general as well as themselves to protect Robertson.

Genuinely skilled performers have become an endangered species and must be protected.

The youngster completed his sixth first-team match on Saturday when Rangers swept his father Malcolm's former team, Hearts, aside on the way to a 4-0 win.

Again his composure and vision were exemplary.

He is also difficult to knock off the ball despite his slightly-made frame and perhaps because he knew this could be his last appearance in the big team for a spell -- "I can't really expect to get a game before Trevor," he said -- he tried to leave the supporters with a goal to remember him by.

Although Henry Smith's net was disturbed four times Robertson failed to score, but it might have been his eagerness as much as anything else which worked against him.

He appeared to be trying too hard although he left the field to applause nonetheless.

Afterwards he appeared in his civvies, which make him look even younger, and said that he thought he would be allowed to take the penalty awarded five minutes from the end of the game.

"I was dying to score," he said, "and I asked Ally (McCoist) if I could take the penalty.

He said 'go on then,' but then I discovered it wasn't his penalty."

The kick was taken by Mark Walters and, of course, he scored to complete a thoroughly miserable day for Hearts, who are looking more and more forlorn and bedraggled.

Their manager, Joe Jordan, chose his words carefully, as always, at the end and although his reasoning sounded plausible enough it does not stand up to close analysis.

Jordan said his team came to grief because they didn't take the couple of scoring chances created in the earlier part of the game before Rangers had started to take control.

However, from where I was sitting, a lack of accuracy around Rangers' penalty area was only part of the problem.

Hearts' general touch and distribution was dreadful and possession was lost much too easily.

Also, there was a lack of the old Tynecastle bite in tackles in the crucial midfield areas where Terry Hurlock and Nigel Spackman were particularly forceful on either side of Robertson.

"These two have helped me a lot," said the youngster, who arrived at Ibrox to begin his apprenticeship four years ago.

"They talk to me all the time and help me through the games."

Help, preferably in the shape of a couple of new players, is something Jordan requires urgently, but he knows he will have to struggle on with the existing personnel because Hearts are skint.

"The money just isn't there at the moment," he said, after having asked the supporters to be patient.

Hearts' fans have been waiting patiently for years and although most of them realise the extent of the club's revival from a first-division team to one which has secured a place in Europe they would have liked the odd piece of silverware.

These days they don't look capable of winning anything.

It might have been different had John Robertson not been having trouble with leg muscles, and Jordan was relieved to disclose that the international striker should resume training this week.

Hearts are not at all the same threat with Robertson sitting in the stand.

By way of contrast, Rangers appear to have too many quality strikers.

Again McCoist was one of the substitutes while Maurice Johnston and Mark Hateley continued their partnership.

Graeme Souness's preference continued one of the modern-day Ibrox debates and the sight of McCoist scoring Rangers' third goal only two minutes after he had relieved Johnston midway in the second half strengthened the argument of those who believe he is a better player than Hateley.

The other side of the chamber could point to the aerial contribution Hateley is making now that his timing has returned.

He was involved in the build-up to McCoist's goal.

Also, with a shade more luck, the tall Englishman might have scored one himself.

Rangers' first and second goals were scored by Johnston and Hurlock, whose shot from just outside the box tended to cloud the judgments being made about this particular player.

Most people believe the Englishman to be little more than a hard-tackling destroyer of play, but that is unfair.

Hurlock does have some skill and his finishing shot on Saturday was perfectly controlled.

Taken from the Herald