Rangers need Celtic's help

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Rangers have the chance to close the gap with Heart of Midlothian to a single point this afternoon as the chase for Scotland's second Champions League place intensifies.

Even if Rangers win their last three games - including their meeting with Hearts at Ibrox a week tomorrow, on the final day of the league season - the runners-up spot and the Champions League qualifying round berth will still go east unless the Tynecastle side drop points elsewhere.

With Hearts at home to Celtic tomorrow, Rangers paradoxically need help from their greatest rivals if they are to join them in the world's most prestigious club competition next season.

Needless to say, the conspiracy theorists have sown for themselves a bumper crop of allegedly predestined results, bearing in mind that if Hearts finish second then Gretna will get Scotland's remaining Uefa Cup place by virtue of meeting the Edinburgh side in the Scottish Cup final, whereas if Rangers are runners-up, any one from Hibernian, Kilmarnock or Aberdeen could yet secure the spare Uefa berth.

After Kilmarnock today, Rangers travel to Hibernian on Tuesday, while Hearts have Aberdeen at home following the visit of Celtic. Alex McLeish, the Rangers manager, however, remained focused on the essentials.

"I'd rather be in Hearts' position but they know with the point we got at Celtic Park last week that if they slip up once and we win our last three games we'll get second place.

"We were 16 points adrift and we've got to within four, so we've got some good momentum behind us," added the Rangers manager, who has named the same squad who drew 0-0 with Celtic last Sunday.

Kilmarnock must do without Simon Ford, who is out of action for four months because of a knee ligament injury.

Hearts, meanwhile, will not have Andy Webster available to play against Celtic but not, the club insist, because he will continue to be dropped as a consequence of his refusal to sign a contract extension.

Webster is nursing an ankle injury sustained in training and Hearts might also have to do without his erstwhile partner, Steven Pressley, unless the Tynecastle captain passes a fitness test, though Edgaras Jankauskas and Takis Fyssas will return.

Celtic have an unchanged squad with Neil Lennon, their captain, refuting suggestions by Rangers fans that his team might not perform at full stretch against Hearts.

"I can understand where people are coming from, but that's certainly not the case in the dressing room," he said. "We want to finish the season with as few defeats as possible for a start, and with as many points as we possibly can. Whether that means spoiling Rangers' party or spoiling Hearts' party, that's not our fate."

Lennon, though, had scalding words for the ever-changing situation at Tynecastle, where the latest development has been the introduction of alternative health therapists at the behest of owner Vladimir Romanov.

"We have a certain sympathy for the Hearts players because they have jobs to do and they're trying to go somewhere the club's never been before," Lennon said.

"They have to put up with the circus behind the scenes and it can't be helping them."

Taken from telegraph.co.uk