Rix has Hearts pumped for tilt at league leaders

The Hearts manager believes the Old Firm duopoly can be broken, says Patrick Glenn

Sunday January 1, 2006
The Observer

During the past wo decades of the Old Firm duopoly, the emergence of a credible third party in Scottish football has seemed about as likely as the Liberal Democrats forming a government.

As contenders for an honour of genuine distinction, Hearts have yet to convince the majority of the populace that they can sustain their charge towards an improbable title triumph, but the Edinburgh team have already surpassed expectations, reaching the turn of the year in second place behind Celtic, with champions Rangers a long way behind.

The event that takes place at Tynecastle today, a collision of the top two at this advanced stage of the championship that features only one of the Glasgow giants, would have seemed unimaginable as recently as five months ago.

But it has not surprised Gordon Strachan, who succeeded Martin O'Neill as manager at Celtic Park when the Northern Irishman quit to look after his ailing wife at the end of last season. 'I knew after six matches that Hearts could maintain their form and remain at or near the top,' said Strachan.

At that juncture, such a prediction would not have required exceptional perspicacity. Hearts then had a perfect record and would go on to a club best of eight straight victories and, despite two subsequent draws - one away to Celtic - would still be leading the Premierleague after ten matches.

What is mildly surprising is that they should remain within striking distance, four points off the pace, despite being afflicted by controversy and a potentially crippling capacity for eccentric behaviour by their Lithuanian owner, Vladimir Romanov.

The Russian-born entrepreneur and banker caused widespread consternation with his seemingly sudden and inexplicable decision to get rid of manager George Burley and, soon after, chief executive Phil Anderton, whose dismissal was quickly followed by the resignation, as a matter of principle, by chairman George Foulkes.

Their departures, moreover, brought an astonishing reaction from Romanov, who claimed in a BBC Scotland documentary that 'every day they were at the club, they damaged it'. This hardly squared with Burley's achievement in transforming a solid, but uninspired, team into authentic championship challengers. Within a week of his leaving, Hearts had lost the derby match to Hibernian at Easter Road and the league leadership to Celtic.

The appointment of Graham Rix as Burley's successor was met by widespread misgivings, although these largely concerned the former Chelsea coach's history, having spent time in prison for unlawful sex with an under-age girl five years earlier.

Those reservations rooted in his potential as an adequate replacement for Burley in strictly coaching terms, however, seemed to be vindicated when the team one only one of their next five matches and seemed to have deteriorated beyond recovery as recently as two weeks ago, when they gave an utterly dispirited performance in their defeat by Rangers at Ibrox.

Nobody who saw that lifeless display would have thought it possible that they could beat anyone 5-0, as they did Falkirk on their next outing, on Boxing Day. Despite protestations by Rix that there was not much wrong with the team during their slump, he did recognise the need for a showdown with a group of players who appeared to have been unsettled by the controversy surrounding the club.

"I don't think the players had changed their approach," Rix said during the build-up to today's match against Celtic. "But I just asked them, 'How did you get to the top of the league? How did you stay there? What were you doing?' Then I showed them the video evidence."

Whether or not the resurgence last Monday will prove to be temporary is a question that could be answered one way or the other this afternoon. But Celtic, as Strachan has admitted, have been less convincing in recent weeks than they had been through the previous three months, so judgment may have to be reserved.

"We haven't played as well this month as we did in November," said the Celtic manager. "But it's rarely possible for any team to maintain a high level of performance through an entire season. There will be periods when you don't play as well. At those times, if you can't be really good players, you have to be really good team-mates.

"That's what we've been doing well in the last three or four games. I'm not unhappy, I'm not growling, I'm just looking at things that I think can be done better. I'm certainly very happy with the progress we have made through the season and where we are now."

Strachan would put up an argument, but Celtic are incontestably less muscular than they were under O'Neill. At their best, they are capable of fluent, inventive football, although they remain alarmingly vulnerable in defence, largely because of the error-prone Bobo Balde and the inexperience of Steve McManus in the centre of the defence.

Strachan is trying to convert the diminutive winger Ross Wallace into a left-back, an experiment that has yet to produce conclusive results. Celtic are also missing the intimidating presence of a fully fit Chris Sutton either in attack or in midfield and the big Englishman will be absent again today because of injury.

Even so, Celtic seem to possess the jealousy of league leaders, finding something extra when their position has been threatened. In the context of today's showdown, it is also significant that their most impressive form has been reproduced in matches against their most threatening challengers, Hibs, Hearts and Rangers.

Taken from the Guardian/Observer