Czech steps forward to keep dream alive

It was a deserved win after a forceful start from George Burley’s side gave them a lead that Rangers thereafter lacked the creative wit to redress. Alex McLeish started with three centre-backs then switched to a back four, but in both guises Rangers lacked the cohesion that comes from a team playing together consistently. There has been too much chopping and changing so far this season and this result is liable to prompt another rethink on the part of the Rangers manager.

Burley, meanwhile, has a squad so small that his team picks itself and this continuity is bringing the very qualities to Hearts that Rangers conspicuously lack right now.

Although the game did not flow freely, Kenny Clark, the referee, attempted to let it but may have cause to regret three penalty decisions when he reviews them. Hearts might have been 2-0 up at half-time if Julien Rodriguez’s attempt to bring wrestling back to Saturday afternoon television with a challenge on Stephen Simmons had been spotted. In the second half, Rangers felt they could have had a couple of penalties themselves.

Their case for the first was backed by Paul Hartley, who admitted catching Barry Ferguson in the penalty box with 20 minutes left, but Clark deemed it a dive and booked the Rangers captain. With a minute left, a goalbound Francis Jeffers drive hit Robbie Neilson’s arm yet Clark ruled it was ball to hand rather than hand to ball.

Outwith these isolated moments of contention, Rangers barely created a chance and Hearts merited their victory which gives them their best start to a season for 91 years and puts them 11 points clear of the defending champions. They were particularly well served by their Scottish internationals. Hartley may have caught Ferguson for the penalty claim, but for most of the match Ferguson and Ian Murray were struggling to catch him.

It was hard to separate the midfielder from Andy Webster, so calm and resolute in defence, when deciding the man-of-the-match and Pressley, who handled Dado Prso excellently, wasn’t far behind either. Further encouragement for Walter Smith came from Hearts finishing the game with eight Scottish players on the field while Rangers only had two, Ferguson and Murray, among their foreigners.

The fireworks that Phil Anderton, the Hearts chief executive, has brought with him from his previous post at nearby Murrayfield greeted the two teams and it did not take long for the game to kindle either. Olivier Bernard scorned its first chance after just eight minutes when he made a mess of a free backpost header.

Hearts responded briskly and Rudi Skacel’s cross to the near post was glanced goalwards by Edgaras Jankauskas, requiring a sharp parry from Ronald Waterreus before Rodriguez completed the clearance for a Hearts corner. Hartley fizzed it at the near post and this time Rangers could not stop Roman Bednar’s header after he nipped in front of Marvin Andrews.

The Czech striker might have made it 2-0 when Skacel easily eluded Ricksen and found him unmarked at the back post but he could not get above the ball to direct his header on target.

The frenetic pace soon started to claim casualties, Jeffers replaced Novo with the Spaniard hirpling off to the dugout. Next to pull up was Bednar and Burley felt his team’s best spell ended with the striker’s departure with suspected damage to a knee cartilage. A less serious knee strain also claimed Takis Fyssas and he was replaced by Jamie McAllister.

McLeish responded to this by sending on Thomas Buffel for Rodriguez and switching back to 4-4-2. The three centre-backs Rangers started with were either a compliment to Hearts or an acknowledgement of their own defensive frailties, but McLeish rushed down the tunnel at half-time knowing there was still a lot to sort out.

Yet his team’s response was hardly menacing and, aside of the two penalty claims, the Tynecastle crowd enjoyed the second half almost as much as it had the first, regularly serenading Vladimir Romanov, the owner, while the team assembled with his money continued to disrupt Rangers’ attempts to find their rhythm.

In their breakouts, Hearts relied heavily on the excellent touch and balance of Jankauskas, who seemed able to find time and space amid the general mayhem of the match while Skacel was also a productive escape route down the left with his capacity to keep the ball under close control while packs of Rangers players pursued him to the corner flag.

Taken from timesonline.co.uk