HEARTS WILL FIGHT UNTIL THEY DROP

IT'S all about bottle now and the whole of the country is listening to see if they can hear a crack in Edinburgh or Glasgow.

The race for second place in the championship has lit up the end of the season after a premature finish to the main prize in Celtic's favour.

The fact that Rangers and Hearts have to meet each other at Ibrox on the final day of the season only adds to the drama.

This is what the game is supposed to be about. Ninety minutes of winner-takes-all football with a place in the Champions League qualifiers at stake.

And if you pinned me against a wall and forced me into a decision one way or the other, I'd have to say I think Hearts will get there in the end.

They're the favourites because they're back to looking like the side that started the season. The Hearts players have risen above the turmoil that's engulfed the club since George Burley was sacked.

On Saturday AndyWebster and Julien Brellier were left out of the side and Rudi Skacel wasn't even in the ground when Hearts were busy dismantling Dunfermline. But top-class players took their places and the team's performance was unaffected.

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The players are angry and frustrated over decisions they feel have gone against them, most recently the non-award of a penalty during a game in which they were dominating Celtic.

But they're channelling that resent-ment into positive action and now is the time to show what they're made of -and the same goes for Rangers.

The fact Hearts have to be faced on the last day means Barry Ferguson now has no alternative but to play through the pain barrier for the rest of the season.

My guess is the doctors wouldn't let Rangers' captain play on if he was going to do himself lasting harm, so Barry will soldier on for the good of the team.

He's making a big, personal sacrifice and I don't think he's doing the right thing, but it's his decision to make and, subconsciously, he knows he can't walk away now.

It's the Scottish mentality that makes players do that kind of thing. The Europeans go about their business in an entirely different way, as Ronald Waterreus has been proving lately.

But I'm certain Waterreus will remain in goal while controversy rages over an article which is now a legal matter involving Rangers.

I'll say this much for the Dutchman -he's got nerve. There must have been some straight talking done between Murray Park and the chairman's office in Edinburgh over the last few days, but that didn't prevent Waterreus from going out against Motherwell and making crucial saves after the Rangers fans had booed him on to the field.

And that was an important win for Rangers because the game would have been up if they'd dropped anything in arace for Europe that has no margin for error.

What can be said ab out the controversy over who said what about whom without legal consultation is that Stefan Klos will now need to wait until Paul Le Guen becomes Rangers' manager and ask him if he wants a goalkeeper whose inclination is to stay on at Ibrox.

Waterreus will leave when the Judgment Day match has been played at Ibrox, but I know Stefan well and he wants to play for Rangers.

And why wouldn't Monsieur Le Guen want a top-class keeper so that his transfer budget could be better used bringing in the outfield players he needs for next season ?

Meanwhile, the dressing room has been disrupted by the media focus on what Waterreus did or didn't say ab out his time at Rangers.

It's the kind of internal strife Hearts have coped with for most of the season but now the real pressure is closing in on both teams.

I look at the fixtures that follow the split and there's the mouthwatering prospect of the Glasgow and Edinburgh derbies taking place on the same weekend. Again, that's the kind of box office drama the game's all about.

There are twists and turns to come and it's unlikely Hearts and Rangers will win all the fixtures they have to play before they meet each other.

Alex McLeish's side have come with the kind of league run that has whittled what used to be a substantial deficit down to a narrow gap between Hearts and themselves.

It's now a case of who blinks first.

Taken from the Daily Record