A win for Hearts and minds

Hearts (1) 1 Rangers (0) 0

In other circumstances the appropriate response to this game would be amnesia. It was a disjointed tale of squandered possession, limited football and few chances. But it was also, in the end, an encounter which will be enshrined in memory, not to mention the record books, as Hearts extended their perfect start to the league campaign to eight victories from eight starts to equal their previous best beginning, back in 1914.

As for Rangers, they may - indeed, they did - attempt to put a gloss on their situation by pointing out that even an 11-point advantage, such as the league leaders now have over the defending champions, is by no means impregnable at this fledgling stage of the season but the uncertainty which haunts Alex McLeish's side was again in evidence at Tynecastle.

The goal which decided the issue, to be fair, was the consequence of the best move of the afternoon. Rudi Skacel, whose phenomenal run of scoring in every league game he had played in since his arrival in Scotland was to come to an end in this fixture, nevertheless contributed significantly to the victory by delivering a swooping cross which was met by Edgaras Jankauskas with a flying header.

Ronald Waterreus blocked, Julien Rodriguez turned the loose ball behind for a corner and Rangers deployed to defend the set-piece. As they have done too often for their own security, however, they allowed themselves to be skewered.

Paul Hartley, the master of the threatening curve ball, delivered it perfectly for Roman Bednar to get away from Marvin Andrews and beat Waterreus at the near post.

"We cannot deal with inswinging corners and that has been the case for some time," said McLeish with commendable candour, even if it was a statement of the obvious. "We lost too many of the individual battles and now we will have to pick ourselves up for the game against Inter Milan in the San Siro on Wednesday."

As a spectacle the game was hardly helped by the number of interruptions for substitutions during the first half because of injuries to Bednar and Takis Fyssas of Hearts and Nacho Novo of Rangers, plus the replacement by McLeish of Julien Rodriguez in a tactical ploy. Nevertheless, even when the action was allowed scope to develop after the break the pattern of attrition could not be broken.

Perhaps it was simply that both sets of players considered there to be too much at stake for fluency, but it was a considerable disappointment to see even the likes of Barry Ferguson send passes astray.

By an oddity of the fixture schedule, Hearts will not play at home again for a full month, by which time they will have undergone another rigorous examination of their credentials, against Celtic in the east end of Glasgow. For their part, Celtic kept in touch at the top with a 2-1 win over Inverness yesterday, a Craig Beattie double in the second half helping them to recover from being a goal behind.

Hearts cannot afford the loss of too many more individuals like Bednar. Already, though, they have greatly enlivened the familiar Scottish football landscape, for which every neutral owes them a debt of gratitude.

Taken from telegraph.co.uk