Burke and hairy story

Andrew Smith

RANGERS 2 Arveladze 20; Burke 52
HEARTS 1 Kirk 10

SO SCRAMBLED and scrawny was Rangers’ victory yesterday, the exhaling from the home supporters inside Ibrox at full-time would have been sufficient to blow a small planet off its axis. Unquestionably, Alex McLeish’s men are in such disarray it hardly matters that they have now moved to within five points of Celtic, who are at Motherwell this afternoon. Three months have now elapsed since a Rangers side bedeviled by injury problems won a game with any real comfort. It is becoming increasingly difficult to take their championship challenge seriously.

On a day when it was revealed Hearts have turned down an offer from shareholder Robert McGrail to buy Tynecastle and lease it back to them so as to negate the need for a Murrayfield flit, the ground beneath their opponents’ feet appeared shaky. However, against an under-strength but gutsy Edinburgh side, Rangers showed fibre of their own in prevailing with goals from Shota Arveladze and Chris Burke cancelling out an early deadlock-breaker from Andy Kirk.

During a hugely enjoyable encounter in which the play was more fragmented than a smashed-up bus station, there was never long to wait for a goalmouth incident to arrive. Misunderstandings and slipshod defending played their part, but the weakened nature of both sides made deficiencies unsurprising in two sides struggling for any real form. After their 2-0 defeat at Dunfermline last Sunday, Rangers were bidding to avoid back-to-back league defeats for the first time in 118 matches.

In welcoming back Mikel Arteta after a month out, the home side - even with Ronald de Boer, Craig Moore, Zurab Khizanishvili, Christian Nerlinger and Steven Thompson out - could be said to have been better placed than their opponents on the selection front. Just for a change. Hearts manager Craig Levein had cautioned against expecting too much of a Hearts side missing captain and all-round inspiration Steven Pressley and Steven Boyack through injury, while Andy Webster and Alan Maybury were unavailable through suspension.

In addition, a hamstring problem forced top scorer Mark de Vries to start on the bench. Doing without the Dutchman on a permanent basis could become a possibility, with sources in Greece revealing that Olympiakos believe the striker could be the solution to their goalscoring problems. The club’s assistant coach Sinisa Gogic cancelled a trip to watch De Vries at Ibrox but it is understood they are serious about a bid in the region of £600,000. Though this is £400,000 below Hearts’ valuation of a player who has 18 months of his contract to run, the parlous state of the Edinburgh club’s finances may preclude rejecting any offer.

It was to their credit that in going for it big style, they did not find opportunities difficult to come by in the absence of their attacking spearhead. Rangers gave them help in poorly defending dipping corners from Robert Sloan. This led to Shota Arveladze clearing a Kevin McKenna header off the line. Moments later, Sloan whipped in another cross that had the Rangers backline all in a fankle before the ball broke to Andy Kirk, whose scuffed effort from close range trickled over the line.

‘It is becoming increasingly difficult to take Rangers’ title attempt seriously
Hearts continued to worry Rangers with Sloan and Kirk both lacking the composure to capitalise on glorious openings. But the inability of makeshift central defensive pairing Scott Severin and Patrick Kisnorbo to plug gaps led to a 20th-minute equaliser that was the product of a looping Arveladze header. This followed a smart block at Mols’ feet from the superb Craig Gordon, whose agility and anticipation was masterly. He made a string of stops, the best of them coming when he stuck out a foot to block a ferocious Peter Lovenkrands volley.

The crushing lack of confidence within the Rangers ranks was manifest in another uncertain performance that was given a sheen it perhaps did not deserve with Burke’s 50th-minute winner. A cutback from off-the-boil Mols allowed the 20-year-old to net with a simple tap-in, but till the very last seconds a Hearts equaliser looked eminently possible.

The field is still a relative sanctuary for Hearts. Off it, the club are at odds with their own shareholders and supporters over moving to Murrayfield next season. The result of requiring to sell Tynecastle to alleviate a £17.6m debt, Hearts’ plight is never done attracting white knights who the club then spear as if they were jousting opponents.

In McGrail being the latest to receive such treatment, the Edinburgh side may be on ground shakier than the soil appears to be under them at Gorgie. McGrail has a 10% stake in Hearts and his verbal offer to purchase Tynecastle from the club and lease it which he intends to formalise, perhaps in a matter of weeks, will become a focus for the widespread opposition to the move.

McGrail claims his proposal was simply "brushed aside" at a shareholder meeting on Tuesday convened to convince of the need to uproot, while Robinson has countered it was not considered because of the fashion it was received. If the proposal is made in writing, it may be more difficult to ignore.

As a property developer McGrail will be well aware of Tynecastle’s real estate value, something Robinson seemed to suggest he was not, and as a man who in the past has made attempts to stabilise the club’s finances, his motives cannot be questioned. Believing Hearts "would not survive" a move away from their spiritual home and chief asset; Robinson contends this would become more problematic if they stayed, a July sale of the ground sought in order that a £750,000 payment due to backers SMG then can be made. A league defeat by Rangers seems small beer in comparison to such intractable matters

Taken from the Scotsman