McLeish edges closer to abyss

GRAHAM SPIERS at Tynecastle September 13 2004

Hearts 0 - 0 Rangers

This was a gruesome game at Tynecastle, with bitterness pervading both the stands and the pitch. Hearts are in political ferment, with their supporters clamouring to remain at Tynecastle. Rangers are merely drowning in a sea of debt, with an increasingly desperate manager waiting for his team to perform.

Hearts might even have snatched victory at the end, but Paul Hartley, with the goal gaping, wafted his header over Stefan Klos' bar. The ragged nature of the match was neatly captured by Craig Levein, a relieved Hearts manager, who said later that "a football match nearly broke out".

A feuding afternoon resulted in a harassed referee, Dougie McDonald, taking the names of Alan Maybury, Craig Moore, Steven Pressley, Paul Hartley, Maurice Ross and Steven Thompson for an assortment of crimes. Some elements, such as Ross' lunge at Maybury and Thompson's chop on Robbie Nielson, were mere minor acts of violence. The rest of it simmered away amid a welter of altercations.

It all ended quite aptly at the final whistle, with Nielson blocking Jean-Alain Boumsong by the throat, only for Paolo Vanoli to go for Nielson, and Mark de Vries then going for Vanoli. Amid the pushing and shoving by the tunnel, Mr McDonald duly added Nielson to his list of yellow cards.

Enough of the aggro, though. The real story here was the growing predicament of Alex McLeish and Rangers.

McLeish needed this draw like a condemned man needed a freshly-built gallows. It leaves Rangers fourth in the league, but worse for McLeish, already seven points behind Celtic after just five weeks. With Rangers facing Marítimo in the UEFA Cup on Thursday, their likeable and impressive manager must feel he is running out of time and options.

McLeish's team have played seven competitive matches this season and won just two of them. With Champions League failure behind him and the title drifting off into the sunset, it is now official: McLeish is a man in a crisis. After this squabble of a game he did his best to deflect questions about his job prospects.

"I think everyone knows the situation here – even David Murray himself has said that, due to the financial situation at the club, I've been working with my hands tied," said McLeish. "At the same time I believe we've made some good investments in the team, and once we get everyone clicking and gelling I believe we'll be okay."

This, though, didn't wash with his sceptical audience. McLeish will know that, a dreadful Rangers debt or not, he will still carry the can for poor results. On these occasions, reason, and certainly compassion, are normally in short supply in football. Asked about his job-security, McLeish did his best to bat away the questions.

"The last thing I'm going to do is talk to the press about my job, because that would be negative and ridiculous," he said. "I still feel positive. I'm not saying we're at the level of Celtic yet, but it's still only September, and Celtic have still got to go to some difficult places, such as here, such as Ibrox. The only pressure I'm under comes from the press asking me these same questions about my job."

It was left to Klos, once more accomplished in the Rangers goal, with an outstanding first half save from de Vries, to sum up his club's plight.

"This is another disappointing result, and there's no question, we need to improve and get results quickly," said Klos. "These are hard times, but if we can improve, we'll have a chance."

Poor Klos, an innocent abroad, then perpetrated the sort of gaffe for which he might find himself hung out to dry, quoting from a sectarian chant which often rings around Ibrox. "We need to keep going," said the Rangers goalkeeper. "It's 'no surrender'."

The afternoon heralded the start of a hectic week for Hearts. Tonight, the club's shareholders convene an extraordinary meeting to cast their vote on the move away from Tynecastle and, while a majority of fans seem against it, block-voting will ensure that the motion is carried. Yet this is surely only the start of months of mayhem and, one hopes, non-violent protest.

There seems nothing non-violent about death threats, which have been issued to Chris Robinson, Hearts' beleaguered chief-executive.

The Pieman, as the Hearts dissenters unflatteringly refer to him, took his seat yesterday to the usual chorus of boos around Tynecastle. It is a racket which Robinson has blithely learned to ignore by calmly perusing his match programme.

At half-time the Hearts supporters unleashed black balloons as a mark of their protest, which both sets of players and even the referee had to go around stamping on. The Tynecastle groundsman even appeared with his fork and started bayoneting the offending objects.

Frankly, McLeish got too little yesterday from some of his so-called bigger players. Once more Dado Prso failed to impose himself on a game and was hauled off after 69 minutes. The mysterious prowess of this Croat, all height, technique and effort but with no tangible reward at the end of it all, must be a worry for his manager.

McLeish must envy what de Vries gives Hearts: all height, threat and touch, spreading his anxiety among defenders. Klos' save from the Dutch striker, who bore a path down on the goalkeeper after 18 minutes, was certainly a pivotal moment in the match.

Rangers certainly had chances but couldn't convert them. Minutes before half-time, Pressley having crunched Vanoli, the subsequent free-kick from Dragan Mladenovic was excellently grasped by Craig Gordon. In the second half, Shota Arveladze, who had replaced Nacho Novo, also missed perhaps Rangers' best chance when he headed Chris Burke's cross wide.

Taken from the Herald