Hearts urged to make life easier for hero Niemi

THE editor of the Hearts programme for the visit of Rangers at the weekend perhaps had a vision as to how Saturday’s clash between the teams would unfold when he opted for a picture of goalkeeper Antti Niemi for the centre spread.

The Finn has assumed the mantle of the fans’ hero since moving from Ibrox more than two years ago.

His form between the posts has rightly earned him the reputation as Scotland’s top stopper and anyone who may have doubted that would have done well to watch his performance at Tynecastle on Saturday.

The Jambos lost the match 2-0, with second-half goals from Ronald de Boer and Neil McCann taking the points back along the M8.

However, had it not been for the performance of Niemi against his former club, the score could well have reached embarrassing proportions for the home side.

Time and again he produced heroics to keep his side in the game and he was understandably gutted that his best display of the season had counted for nothing in the end.

"I think we got away with 2-0," said boss Craig Levein afterwards. "I shouldn’t be surprised, I suppose, at the saves which Antti makes but sometimes I would like to give him a rest, from the point of view of not having so much to do.

"He had a smashing game on Saturday and made some excellent stops."

Much has been made of the gulf which exists between the Old Firm and the rest of the teams in the Premier League and that was once again demonstrated at Tynecastle.

Levein and skipper Steven Pressley had said beforehand that Hearts would have to be at their best to take something from the match. But the way Alex McLeish’s side passed the Jambos out of the game after the break and bossed the midfield area, the home side would likely have had their work cut out even if they had been firing on all cylinders.

This was an accomplished performance from a Rangers side with their confidence sky high following the CIS Cup semi-final victory over Celtic at Hampden Park four days earlier.

Losing, therefore, was no disgrace for Levein and his players, but what annoyed the Gorgie boss was that the Jambos were the architects of their own downfall by regularly gifting possession to their opponents.

They may get away with that against other teams but in Barry Ferguson, Ronald de Boer and Shota Arveladze, to name but a few, Rangers have the players to punish such generosity.

"I felt we constantly gave possession away and although we worked as hard as we have ever done, a lot of it was chasing Rangers," said Levein. "Although I thought we were poor, Rangers played exceptionally well ."

The other disappointing thing for Levein was that Hearts had started the match so brightly and looked capable of giving the Ibrox outfit a real run for their money.

Ricardo Fuller forced Stefan Klos into a save at his near post in the opening few minutes - one of the few times the German was actually called into action during the entire match.

The Jamaican then sent an angled shot wide after a good flick-on from Scott Severin before doing well to almost set up Gary Wales, Bert Konterman intervening in the nick of time to clear the danger just when the striker’s eyes must have lit up at the sight of goal.

That all happened in the opening quarter-of-an-hour but it was then that Rangers began to come more and more into proceedings.

Niemi kept them out with a stunning hat-trick of saves within the space of 60 seconds.

He reacted brilliantly to tip over a close-range header from De Boer, then produced a superb parry to deny Arveladze. With Hearts again failing to clear their lines, the Finn had to get down well to gather a low drive from the Georgian.

Ferguson then saw Niemi save his near-post shot before curling an excellent effort narrowly past.

The hosts had fallen out of things somewhat as the opening half wore on, although Fuller should have done better than drag a shot wide after a neat lay-off from Stephen Simmons had presented him with a good opportunity.

Fittingly, the final word of the first 45 minutes went to Niemi, whose magnificent tip-over from Arveladze’s header from McCann’s cross left the Georgian wondering just what he had to do to break the deadlock.

Happy enough to have gone in on level terms, Levein decided to freshen things up on the hour mark when the injured Simmons was replaced by Andy Kirk and Stephane Adam came on for Wales.

However, no sooner had the pair taken to the field than Rangers edged in front.

Thomas Flogel gave the ball away to Lorenzo Amoruso inside the Gers’ half, the Italian released McCann down the left and when the former Hearts star’s cross was dummied by Tore Andre Flo to deceive Kevin McKenna, De Boer was left with all the time in the world to beat the exposed Niemi.

The Finn then denied Ferguson and McCann in quick succession as Hearts struggled to get out of their own half.

It seemed only a matter of time before the lead was increased but Arveladze wasted another fine chance when he somehow managed to shoot wide from a great position with 15 minutes remaining.

With only one goal in it, there must have been still some hope in the home camp of snatching a point but those aspirations were killed off after 82 minutes and, frustratingly for the Gorgie faithful, the goal again came from good Hearts possession.

Fuller was trying to wriggle his way into the box from the right when he claimed for obstruction after being blocked by Arthur Numan. Referee Hugh Dallas, though, saw nothing wrong and with the Jamaican left standing pleading his case the visitors raced upfield.

Stephen Hughes found McCann inside his own half and the winger sped up the park, skipped past Flogel’s challenge, and sent a terrific shot into the corner of the net to complete the kind of solo effort the Hearts fans had been used to seeing from Fuller when he is on form.

Fernando Ricksen was only inches wide with a late shot as Rangers tried to put a more realistic scoreline on things and Levein was forced to concede afterwards that his players, as hard as they had battled, had been taught a footballing lesson.

He said: " At half-time I wasn’t too concerned but in the second half they taught us how to pass and keep possession. By the end we were there for the taking."

Taken from the Scotsman