Levein's heart impresses McLeish

Ibrox manager praises rival ahead of Tynecastle clash he dare not lose

STEPHEN HALLIDAY

AMID the bedlam which will assuredly be Tynecastle tomorrow afternoon, Alex McLeish will have no time to pause and admire the accomplishments of his rival in the opposing technical area.

As the Rangers manager prepares his side for a fixture they dare not lose even this early in the championship race, however, he was able yesterday to offer a glowing appraisal of Craig Levein’s work which has been carried out in difficult and well documented circumstances.

McLeish, in fact, appears to have a good deal of empathy with the Hearts head coach. As he attempts to revisit success at Ibrox against the backdrop of the club’s record level of debt, McLeish can appreciate the problems Levein has so far managed to overcome at Tynecastle.

"Craig’s done a good job, no doubt about it," said McLeish. "He has been very consistent over the past two or three years. It is hard to stay in the position Hearts have held for the last couple of years when you have such a big turnover of personnel.

It is hard to stay in the position Hearts have held with such a big turnover of personnel
"I know, personally speaking, that the turnover we have had in the past two seasons makes things extremely difficult. You don’t have the stability that Celtic have had over the last four years. So Craig has done a great job."

Despite Hearts having claimed a rare victory at Ibrox when the teams last met at Ibrox at the end of last season, Rangers record at Tynecastle is exemplary with nine wins and two draws in Gorgie since they suffered their last defeat there back in August 1998.

It is an impressive statistic McLeish knows his side have to maintain as they face the prospect of taking the field tomorrow eight points behind Celtic if the champions defeat Dundee at Parkhead today. "We have played quite well at Tynecastle in recent years," said McLeish. "We have upped our game there, realising Hearts are one of the contenders in the top part of the table.

"We know we are in a catch-up situation, so there will be extra intensity there. The players are brought to Rangers because they can handle that sort of thing and we are going to Tynecastle for three points, nothing less."

Sunday fixtures will be the rule rather than the exception for Rangers in forthcoming weeks as a result of television scheduling and their involvement in Thursday night UEFA Cup ties. McLeish is aware of the regular strain it may place on his players as they try to stay in touch with Celtic.

"Television is ruling the game just now," he said, "and it can obviously be a disadvantage to us playing so often on a Sunday, depending on the results the previous day and the league table. It is definitely a disruption from the norm for players in terms of their body clocks."

At the start of a highly significant week for McLeish, with the first leg of Rangers’ UEFA Cup first round tie against Maritimo in Madeira next Thursday night, he has fresh injury concerns to address.

He confirmed yesterday that Alan Hutton suffered ankle ligament damage playing for Scotland’s under-21 side against Slovenia on Tuesday night and is likely to be sidelined for several weeks. The youngster had performed admirably at right-back in the Old Firm game at Parkhead two weeks ago and was set for an extended run in the side.

With Fernando Ricksen filling a midfield berth in the absence of the injured Alex Rae, it means Maurice Ross will be given another opportunity to convince McLeish of his credentials at right-back.

"Maurice was close to going to West Ham recently," said McLeish, "and he feels he needs first team football at this stage of his career. He has been patient and dealt with it in a mature fashion and he deserves to do well now he is back in the first team."

Rangers were still waiting for Jean-Alain Boumsong to return from international duty last night, France having been delayed in the Faroe Islands by fog. If World Cup week brought some frustrations for McLeish, it did at least provide valuable match practice for Dragan Mladenovic, who played for Serbia Montenegro in their 3-0 win in San Marino.

"Dragan is looking better and getting stronger," said McLeish. "We played him ahead of schedule against Celtic and I know from speaking to him he wanted to do better because he is a proud man. We have got an intense month coming up now and we need all hands on deck."

Taken from the Scotsman