Praise for Hearts fans

PAUL KIDDIE

HEARTS supporters were today praised for keeping their cool during the league clash with Rangers at Tynecastle after visiting fans infiltrated areas meant for the hosts.

Trouble flared in the second half of the Jambos’ 2-0 defeat when Ronald de Boer broke the deadlock two minutes after Shota Arveladze had seen his penalty brilliantly saved by Tepi Moilanen.

Rangers fans who had bought tickets for the area immediately behind the away dug-out as well as the main stand started celebrating, much to the disgust of the Gorgie faithful.

A number of the visitors were promptly ejected by the police and stewards and Hearts security chief Tom Purdie has praised the home fans for keeping their cool in the face of such provocation.

"In the build-up to the game we had received intelligence that Rangers fans had bought tickets for some of the home sections at Tynecastle," he said.

"There are a lot of Rangers fans in the Edinburgh area and once the public sale of tickets started it was almost impossible to detect these individuals.

"Some were clearly noticeable in the north enclosure as well as the upper main stand and were dealt with accordingly.

"The situation could have turned ugly and the Hearts fans behaved well in the circumstances and demonstrated a lot of restraint in certain areas of the ground," Purdie went on.

Peter Lovenkrands completed the victory for the Ibrox outfit seven minutes after De Boer’s near-post header but Hearts boss Craig Levein was delighted with his players’ efforts after they threatened to repeat their shock win over Celtic with another triumph over the other half of the Old Firm. "I thought that we were the better side for an hour of the game yesterday," he said. "I think the penalty gave them a lift, even though they missed it. But credit to Rangers, they showed great resilience.

"It was a fair and competitive match and on the strength of their final half-hour, they maybe deserved to sneak it."

Despite the setback, though, Hearts, barring a disaster, will be playing in Europe next season. The Gorgie outfit are currently three points ahead of nearest rivals Kilmarnock and boast a goal difference of plus ten with just one game left to play.

"Killie drawing at Dunfermline on Saturday was a good result for us," said skipper Steven Pressley.

"It will take an absolute disaster for us not to achieve Europe now and it has been a great team effort from everybody."

Taken from the Scotsman