Rangers in front - by a goal

Graham Clark at Tynecastle
Monday May 19, 2003
The Guardian

Scottish Premier

Hearts 0 Rangers 2 De Boer 65, Lovenkrands 73

With only 90 minutes' football left in an enthralling championship race Rangers top the Scottish Premier League having scored one more goal than their Old Firm rivals. So after 37 matches the season now boils down to games next Sunday at Rugby Park and Ibrox.

Celtic go to Kilmarnock on the back of their midweek Uefa Cup final against Porto, while Rangers are at home to Dunfermline in as nerve-racking a finale as any scriptwriter could have conjured up.

Yet for long spells here it seemed as if the Parkhead team would go into the last day with a decided advantage. Rangers were edgy, riddled with tension and basically out of sorts until an eight-minute spell midway through the second half when first Ronald de Boer and then the substitute Peter Lovenkrands gave the Ibrox side all three points.

Those goals followed yet another missed penalty from the visitors; this time Shota Arveladze was the culprit, after Barry Ferguson's two spot-kick misses two weeks ago at Dundee. Up until then Hearts had given at least as good as they had received and not for the first time Stefan Klos had a big influence on the outcome. The German's saves from an early Scott Severin free-kick and then from Mark de Vries after 42 minutes were the highlights of a scrappy first half.

Bookings for Michael Mols and Lorenzo Amoruso added to the tension after the interval. Indeed, Mols went off after 62 minutes to be replaced by Steven Thompson and only 60 seconds later Arveladze's penalty after a De Vries hand- ball signalled the start of the Rangers onslaught.

The Georgia striker quickly made amends when he crossed to De Boer, who broke the deadlock by nodding past the Hearts goalkeeper Tepi Moilanen. Rangers doubled their lead eight minutes later. This time the Dutchman turned provider and supplied a great ball from the left flank into the path of Lovenkrands who fired the ball home.

The Rangers manager Alex McLeish said: "It was important not to panic after a poor first half although the only thing running through my head when Shota missed his penalty was that I would be punching him afterwards.

"You wonder at times like that if it's all drifting away from you but we kept going and we have given ourselves a great chance. The home crowd next week will be a big factor but you won't get any wild boasts from me because that would be disrespectful to Dunfermline."

His players were equally circumspect and De Boer would say only: "We have a little bit of an advantage."

Though the focus of attention had been on the visitors, Hearts were impressive and barring a last-day disaster will be in the Uefa Cup next season. Their manager Craig Levein said: "It was important for us to compete well against Rangers and we did that. Indeed, I felt we were the better team for an hour, but all credit to Rangers, who showed great resilience."
Advertiser links
Buy Combined PDA Phones on eBay.co.uk

You'll find anything from vintage cars and designer clothing...
ebay.co.uk
Save on Phone PDA at ShopGenie

Save on phone PDA at ShopGenie, the shopping search engine...
shopgenie.co.uk
PDAs and Accessories - Phone/PDA Deals

PDAs and accessories, find Phone PDA at Kelkoo, the...
kelkoo.co.uk

Now the spotlight switches to Kilmarnock and Glasgow, where the Old Firm's remarkable title contest will surely be decided. Or will it? Maybe a play-off at Hampden Park will yet provide the ultimate ending.

Man of the match: Craig Moore (Rangers)

Taken from the Guardian/Observer