Hearts turning back the clock

The last time Hearts won their opening eight league games was in 1914-15. They were galloping to the title when the First World War broke out. Instead, they enlisted in the army, swapping Tynecastle for the trenches. Seven of the side that registered those eight victories were to die on the battlefields of The Somme, while the weakened squad left behind saw Celtic snatch their championship.

Supporters were out collecting money on Saturday to maintain the memorial site in France, but there could be no more fitting monument than for George Burley’s team to bring the title home to Tynecastle before the old stand makes way for the gleaming new edifice that will be part of the 37,000-seat revamped home of which Vladimir Romanov dreams.

Make no mistake, if Hearts’ owner builds it — and Burley’s players put the Bank of Scotland Premierleague trophy there — then the people will come. Already every home game is a 17,000 sell-out and after Roman Bednar’s clinical header put some clear maroon water between Hearts and the champions, Tynecastle is now engulfed by a tide of optimism.

Bednar was injured by a tackle from Marvin Andrews soon after his glancing header from Paul Hartley’s formidable corner and the Czech Republic Under-21 player could require surgery for a cartilage problem.

This was Hearts’ first win over Rangers in the league at Tynecastle since August 1998, but the champions went away cursing their ill-fortune at not being awarded a penalty.

Robbie Neilson, the full back, was lucky to survive a penalty claim in the last minute, when Francis Jeffers’s shot struck his arm. “It stopped the shot going into the top corner,” Alex McLeish, the Rangers manager, said.

Taken from timesonline.co.uk