Hearts 1-2 Rangers

The match, though, ended in mayhem, with two players, Dado Prso and Saulius Mikoliunas, being ordered off by referee Hugh Dallas in the dying minutes, after Dallas awarded Rangers a penalty for a Lee Miller trip on Sotirios Kyrgiakos. Fernando Ricksen converted to rescue the three points for his team.

Hearts' redemption had seemed late, dramatic and conclusive. Paul Hartley's 87th minute free-kick seemed to squirm its way between Ronald Waterreus and his left post before rolling in front of a gaping Rangers goal. The Hearts substitute, Mark Burchill, had the simple task of knocking the ball into the net.

The moments which immediately followed this were ugly. Prso, wrestling with Craig Gordon for the ball following that late penalty claim, was ordered off for his rough treatment of the Hearts goalkeeper. At the final whistle, Dallas was also pelted with missiles as he left the field under a police escort.

It was an old story. Hearts failed to convert their efforts into goals, while Rangers re-emerged from the half-time break to mug Hearts with a classic sucker punch. Nacho Novo's goal after 49 minutes was his 23rd of the season and one more vindication of McLeish's decision to buy the Spaniard.

Dallas had already endured the usual torrid Tynecastle night. The narrow, crackling confines of this stadium seems to guarantee a raucous assembly, and the racket does little to calm the players' minds. Dallas, in particular, had a highly-strung Hartley to deal with. The Hearts midfielder was in the thick of it, took a ball in the face, and even found time, foolishly, to argue with some Rangers fans down in one of Tynecastle's combustible corners.

The direct running of Deividas Cesnauskis and Mikoliunas was a constant threat to Rangers and, whatever the rights and wrongs of the Roman Romanov claim on Hearts, the arrival of these two players is long since confirmed as manna from heaven for John Robertson.

Both players possess an irrepressible urge to tear at defenders with the ball, as the often discomfitted Maurice Ross and Michael Ball discovered last night. Just about every surge from Hearts sprang from the swift feet of these two strikers. Both players, however, perpetrated astonishing misses in front of goal.

Robertson had one astute tactic up his sleeve which, if it didn't quite disorientate Rangers, certainly disturbed them. In flooding his midfield and playing with just one central striker in Miller, Rangers, especially in the opening 45 minutes, found themselves rumbled and out numbered in the middle of the park. In that period, though, Hearts failed to convert a clutch of excellent chances.

Cesnauskis and Mikoliunas certainly designed and executed the miss of the opening half, and how precious that goal would have been to Hearts after 18 minutes. Mikoliunas, taking flight down the right, swept over a cross which Ronald Waterreus appeared to spill in his six-yard box. In an acre of space but finding little poise, Cesnauskis bludgeoned his shot high over Rangers' bar.

Rangers endured considerable Hearts pressure in the first half and should have fallen behind in the 24th minute following further damage imported from the Baltic. Mikoliunas, this time finding himself free inside Rangers'' area, simply hammered his shot at Waterreus, who miraculously rebuffed it against his post. It was the sort of save from the Dutchman which looked better the more you studied it.

Rangers toiled for rhythm in much of this game and the visitors' frustration was summed up in the figure of Dado Prso. This willing and eager striker must be an inspiration to his team-mates for all his remarkable effort, yet too often last night the Croat found himself exploring blind alleys. Time after time Prso's mazy runs were stopped in their tracks, and he finished the first half with his name in the referee's book for an elbow on Andy Webster.

In their desire to score, Hearts remembered everything except how to put the ball in the back of the net. For Hearts supporters, there must have been something dreadfully familiar about the shape of this game, in that Robertson''s men pressed and pressed and then fell behind.

Rangers' opener after 49 minutes was a classic piece of poaching from Novo. It was also, for Prso, whose efforts were relentless and who created the goal, a just reward for his night of toil. Prso turned past Christophe Berra and executed a perfect 15-yard pass into the path of Novo. The little Spaniard ended up on his backside but still finished in style, sliding to direct the ball past Craig Gordon.

Rangers had a greater purchase on the game in the seocnd period, doubtless aided by the cushion of Novo's goal. But it didn't stop Hearts, and Mikoliunas, from continuing to miss chances.

No sooner had Novo snatched Rangers' lead than the Lithuanian was again free in front of goal but his shot was deflected for a corner.

Burchill's late goal seemed the salvation for Hearts before those dramatic final minutes.

Hearts (4-5-1): Gordon; Neilson, Webster, Berra, Wallace; Cesnauskis, MacFarlane, Hartley, McAllister, Mikoliunas; Miller

Rangers (4-3-1-2): Waterreus; Ross, Kyrgiakos, Andrews, Ball; Ricksen, Ferguson, Vignal; Buffel; Novo, Prso

Taken from the Herald