Rangers start to lose touch

STEPHEN HALLIDAY
AT TYNECASTLE

Hearts 0
Rangers 0

AS THEY gaze up the Premierleague table this morning, with not just seven points but Aberdeen and Kilmarnock separating them from Celtic, Rangers find themselves facing a mountainous task to prevent their season slipping away from them irrevocably less than halfway through September.

After this apology for a football match at Tynecastle, in which neither side merited victory, the feeling is strengthened that the reigning champions will have little cause to look anxiously over their shoulders over the next few months.

Rangers have now failed to score in any of their three away league fixtures and have won just two of their seven games in all competitions so far. As he prepares to take his side to Madeira this week for the first leg of their UEFA Cup first round tie against Maritimo, Alex McLeish must know failure to reach the group stage is simply not an option if he is to have the opportunity of seeing through his current rebuilding job at Ibrox.

Neither the Rangers manager nor his Hearts counterpart Craig Levein could take any great comfort from events on the pitch yesterday which were often as ugly as the ubiquitous protests which surround any fixture at Tynecastle these days.

If anything, Levein can probably be satisfied his side remain level on points with Rangers in what may yet be a genuine battle for second place this season.

"There were a couple of times when a game of football almost broke out," Levein observed wryly. "There was commitment and effort from both teams, you can say it was competitive, frenetic and energetic, but it just masks the fact there wasn’t much football. I have to look at the positives, but I’m not sure what they are at the moment."

Few would have predicted McLeish’s selection of Paolo Vanoli on the left of midfield in a reshuffled side which also saw Chris Burke return on the right. The Italian, who has seen his left back slot taken by Gregory Vignal this season, did produce the first threatening moment of a contest which began in a predictably frantic manner.

Dado Prso’s clever lay-off presented the opportunity to Vanoli whose rasping left foot shot from around 20 yards was claimed at the second attempt by the scrambling Craig Gordon.

The return of Mark de Vries in attack compensated Hearts for the absence of the injured Ramon Pereira and the giant Dutchman provided a rapid response for the home side when he stole in behind the Rangers defence to latch on to Patrick Kisnorbo’s flick and drove in a low shot which Stefan Klos did well to turn behind for a corner.

If McLeish was alarmed at how De Vries had found so much space, his concern was heightened when the diminutive Graham Weir was allowed a free header from Alan Maybury’s cross, the ball drifting harmlessly wide of Klos’ left-hand post to the relief of Craig Moore and Jean-Alain Boumsong.

There was little to distinguish the teams in a first half desperately short of either attractive football or goalmouth incident but Levein would perhaps be the more content manager as Hearts refused to allow Rangers to impose themselves on the contest.

There was a scare for the Hearts defence when Nacho Novo eluded their offside trap to send a close range header wide from Chris Burke’s free-kick, while Gordon made a good save to keep out Dragan Mladenovic’s sweetly struck set piece after Steven Pressley had collected the game’s first booking for a thundering foul on Vanoli.

Kisnorbo’s impressive contribution in midfield was central to Hearts’ success in suffocating any signs of creativity from Rangers and the Australian was also eager to lend support to his strikers, getting on the end of a Joe Hamill free-kick to head the first effort of the second half just wide.

The grim pattern of the first period was largely maintained, however, and both managers tried to alter it. Rangers replaced the anonymous Novo with Shota Arveladze, while Hearts withdrew the tiring de Vries and sent on Neil Janczyk in a revamped formation which left Weir as their lone striker.

Arveladze missed a glorious chance to plunder the lead for Rangers in 67 minutes, contriving to head wide from no more than six yards out.

McLeish quickly introduced Steven Thompson and Peter Lovenkrands to the action, the commitment of two more attacking players serving to underline the desperate need felt by Rangers to win the match even at this stage of the season.

Robbie Neilson was forced to scramble away a dangerous cross from Burke and Thompson scuffed a Fernando Ricksen cutback wide as the visitors tried to force the pace in the closing stages, but Rangers seldom appeared likely to take all three points.

It was Hearts who came closest to snatching a late winner, Paul Hartley ghosting in behind the Rangers defence to meet Maybury’s deep cross from the left and wastefully heading over from close range.

The afternoon ended in acrimony, Neilson felling Boumsong with a forearm smash right on the full-time whistle which sparked a fracas on the touchline between Vanoli and de Vries. Neilson earned the seventh yellow card of the match.

Hearts: Gordon, Neilson, Pressley, Webster, Maybury; Stamp, Hartley, Kisnorbo (Macfarlane 87), Hamill (McAllister 84); De Vries (Janczyk 62), Weir. Subs not used: Moilanen, Wyness, Berra, Stewart.

Rangers: Klos, Ross, Moore, Boumsong, Vignal; Burke, Ricksen, Mladenovic, Vanoli (Lovenkrands 69); Prso (Thompson 69), Novo (Arveladze 55). Subs not used: Smith, Davidson, McCormack, Andrews.

Referee: D McDonald.
Attendance: 14,061

Taken from the Scotsman