By Ken Gaunt, PA Sport

Rangers stretched their unbeaten run to 15 matches and maintained their position at the top of the Premier League with a comfortable victory at Ibrox today.

Two goals from Rod Wallace and another from Jonatan Johansson gave them revenge for an opening day defeat by Hearts.

But more importantly for manager Dick Advocaat it puts his team in good heart for the difficult UEFA Cup match at Bayer Leverkusen in Germany next Thursday.

However Advocaat was furious with referee Stuart Dougal for red-carding skipper Lorenzo Amoruso two minutes for time after lashing out at David Weir.

Hearts had also defeated Rangers to lift the Scottish Cup last May but they displayed little inspiration this afternoon. Had it not been for an outstanding display by keeper Gilles Rousset they would have been humiliated.

They badly missed winger Neil McCann and Stephane Adam, who were both injured.

Andrei Kanchelskis returned to the Rangers starting line-up after missing four games with a wrist injury. Barry Ferguson was also named by the league leaders after missing Scotland's two European Championship qualifiers with a hamstring problem.

Tynecastle manager Jim Jefferies gave a debut to former Ibrox striker Gary McSwegan, a recent signing from Dundee United.

Kanchelskis got right into his stride and picked out Johansson after six minutes. The Finland striker rattled in a 20-yard shot that Rousset pushed away to his right.

Then the Frenchman got a hand to a stinging effort from Kanchelskis and also managed to parry the rebound.

Rangers continued to pour forward and Rousset clawed away a close-range effort from Wallace after Johansson had played the ball in.

Amoruso ventured upfield and tried a speculative shot from 30 yards that Rousset cleared with some difficulty. Hearts finally carved out a decent chance for the first time 10 minutes before the break.

McSwegan was left unmarked and powered in a header only for keeper Lionel Charbonnier to tip it over.

Rousset again came to Hearts' rescue with an astonishing save from a fierce Jorg Albertz volley from eight yards out.

But Hearts were only inches away from taking the lead in the 43rd minute when McSwegan rattled the post and the Spanish midfielder Juanjo sent the rebound into the crowd.

That was Juanjo's last slice of the action and he was replaced by Vincent Guerin at the start of the second half.

Manager Jim Jefferies also brought off Thomas Flogel, replacing him with Lee Makel.

Hearts had been struggling and their problems increased in the 50th minute when Johansson opened the scoring.

Rousset did exceptionally well to beat away a drive from Barry Ferguson. The ball broke to Giovanni van Bronckhorst and he swept it back into the area.

Johansson, left unmarked, knocked it home as Rousset launched a verbal assault on his absent defenders.

Wallace added a second in the 61st minute when Johansson turned provider and Wallace tapped the ball in to wrong-foot Rousset.

The keeper was forced to work overtime and made another superb stop from substitute Charlie Miller with Hearts over-run.

Rangers were reduced to 10 men with two minutes to go when Amoruso aimed a kick at Weir.

But that did not prevent them adding a third goal on the stroke of full-time when Wallace beat Rousset with a rising drive after van Bronckhorst had played the ball through.

Teams

Rangers: Charbonnier, Porrini, Amoruso, B. Ferguson, Kanchelskis (Rozental 76), Van Bronckhorst, Albertz, Wallace (Wilson 90), Johansson (Miller 65), Vidmar, Hendry.

Subs Not Used: I. Ferguson, Brown.

Sent Off: Amoruso (87).

Goals: Johansson 50, Wallace 61, 90.

Hearts: Rousset, Naysmith, Weir, Salvatori, Ritchie, Fulton, Hamilton, Flogel (Guerin 45), Pressley, Carricomdo (Makel 45), McSwegan, Makel (O'Neill 62).

Subs Not Used: McKenzie, Horn.

Booked: Fulton, Weir.

Att: 49,749

Ref: S Dougal (Glasgow).

Taken from sportinglife.com