McLeish's reign at Rangers ends with victory

Rangers 2 (Boyd 36, 74)
Hearts 0

ON THE occasion of Alex McLeish's farewell to Rangers, it was probably entirely fitting that Hearts should respectfully keep themselves to themselves, forsaking their normal boldness in favour of a diffidence that would allow the Ibrox manager the rare luxury of an anxiety-free victory.

With all of the Premierleague issues settled - including the one that left the Tynecastle side in the Champions League at the expense of McLeish's team - there was clearly no need for Hearts to antagonise anyone.

That they had no intention of doing so appeared obvious from the moment the team sheets reached the hands of the media, revealing personnel whose presence at the club had seemed, over the past few months, to be merely a rumour.

This amounted almost to an invitation to Rangers - and, more specifically, McLeish - to help themselves to one last, essentially meaningless, victory before it all becomes serious once again next season. The home side accepted through the agency of the apparently insatiable Kris Boyd, whose goals on either side of the interval proved to be decisive.

On the grounds that Hearts these days seem incapable of making a gesture that is anything less than extravagant, nobody should have been unduly shocked by the decision of Valdas Ivanauskas to make nine changes to the team who had beaten Aberdeen in midweek.

But Rangers supporters who construed the selection as something of an insult probably failed to take into account that, unlike fallen champions for whom this was merely the perfunctory completion of their scheduled programme, the Tynecastle side still have a Tennent's Scottish Cup final to contest.

For proper slights, the home fans had only to listen to their rivals, squeezed into their segregated pen in the corner between the Broomloan and Govan stands. The 1,200 or so flaunting the maroon favours and cavorting with beach balls and life belts did not miss the opportunity to exploit the bragging rights their team had secured for them by denying yesterday's opponents their traditional place in Europe's most prestigious and lucrative tournament.

"Here for the party, we're only here for the party," the Hearts supporters chanted gleefully, indicating that nothing that was likely to happen on the field of play would disrupt a mood of celebration that had descended four days earlier (and which, doubtless, will remain undisturbed for the rest of the summer).

Even when Boyd gave Rangers the lead towards the end of the first half, the Tynecastle followers seemed less inclined than their players to make any kind of fuss over the possibility that an injustice had been perpetrated.

Considering that the referee was Ian Brines - a deputy for Kenny Clark, a call-off because of injury - who had inflamed the same support during the contentious match against Celtic on New Year's Day, this was forbearance above and beyond. It was when Boyd forced the corner kick with a shot saved by Steve Banks that led to the goal, that the Hearts defenders protested that the ball had crossed the dead ball line before Dado Prso had delivered the low cut-back. From the corner by Peter Lovenkrands on the right, Boyd demonstrated the natural striker's gift for finding space in crowded areas, unchallenged as he bent to head the ball over the line from inside the six-yard box, close to the far post.

It was not the first time Rangers had threatened, but, on a day which generated an atmosphere that had been neutered by circumstance, Hearts had also contrived promising positions in forward areas. Both sides, however, appeared for much of the time to be less than desperately urgent to make their mark.

Hearts were, however, not so uninterested that they were not able to produce scoring efforts that required intervention from the excellent Ronald Waterreus to frustrate them. The big goalkeeper, for example, was on top of Mirsad Beslija early in the second half to block the shot when it seemed impossible for the Bosnian not to find the net from only six yards.

If that denied the visitors an equaliser, it was Waterreus who prevented their taking the lead much earlier by diving low to his right to keep out a header from Michal Pospisil - he had been served by Calum Elliot's cross from the right - that had appeared certain to register on the scoreboard.

Boyd, however, would be a predictable exception to the general lethargy. Strikers as prolific as the former Kilmarnock player invariably regard the final whistle of a match - or the board indicating they are being substituted during play - as an affront, the denial of the opportunity to make their stats even more impressive.

Boyd's move to Ibrox in January has clearly done nothing to diminish either his appetite or his productivity and, when he completed his double in the second half, he brought his total for the season to an extraordinary 37, of which 20 have been scored during his short time in the royal blue shirt.

The move was started by Prso, who supplied Gavin Rae on the right as Boyd moved forward into the penalty area. The Hearts defenders were pulled towards Rae, leaving the former Dundee player to roll the ball to Boyd, who finished beautifully with a controlled, deliberate, left-foot shot to the left of Banks from about 12 yards' range.

None of this made the slightest difference to the partying of the visiting supporters, who could never have thought the day would dawn when defeat at Ibrox would not cause a collective furrowing of the brows.

Taken from the Scotsman