Pressley sits and suffers as Hearts continue slide

LIKE a pair of wounded soldiers, Hearts and Rangers exchanged limp blows yesterday in a mediocre confrontation which was a pale shadow of past battles between the clubs. Whatever Rangers' current shortcomings, however, they are but a few dark clouds compared to the thunderstorm of woes hanging over Tynecastle. Without a win in the SPL since 1 October, Hearts were buried in this match by their own confusion and a firm shot from Nacho Novo which took a deflection on its way past Craig Gordon.

It was a measure of the disheartened mood in Gorgie that insipid Hearts couldn't deliver a single shot at goal in the 12 minutes which remained after Novo's decisive strike. Undone by confused tactics and a bewildering selection policy, the brief reign of Eduard Malofeev as interim coach will not go down as one of Hearts' more inspired managerial appointments. During his five games in charge, Malofeev failed to guide Hearts to a single win.

There will be a new Lithuanian in the dug-out against Inverness next week but what chance there is of any improvement at Tynecastle while the captain, Steven Pressley, sits on the substitutes bench, the Lithuanian players in the side are jeered by their own supporters and the formation changes every week, is a moot point. If Rangers were a long way short of playing exhilarating football in this match, a combination of competence and organisation was more than sufficient to see off a thoroughly disjointed Hearts side.

When you're down, events can often seem to conspire against you. While Rangers were just about worth their win, Novo was perhaps fortunate to be on the field to score the decisive goal after aiming a kick at Marius Zaliukas, which was punished by a yellow card rather than a red, and, in a separate incident, elbowing Julien Brellier.

After the match, Hearts supporters chanted that they wanted their captain back. Certainly, there was no doubt Pressley's influence in defence was missed almost as much as his inspiring effect on others. Other absentees, such as the mysterious disappearance of Takis Fyssas, who played for Greece last week but hasn't been seen in the Hearts team since a CIS Cup tie against Alloa, are just as inexplicable. There were chants of 'sack the board' after this game. Who would have believed just 18 months after the formal buy-out from Chris Robinson that Hearts would again be at such a low ebb?

If the presence of Pressley on the bench was the main talking point before the match, perhaps the more significant selection in terms of the outcome of the match was the presence of Paul Hartley, who captained the team, Julien Brellier and Bruno Aguiar in central midfield for the first time this season. Once Hearts' coaching staff also deign to select the best players in defence and attack, the club's season can only improve on the current muddle.

As it was, the influence of this central trio in a 3-5-2 formation (where Hartley was given a licence to support Andrius Velicka and Jamie Mole) was cohesive enough in the early stages of the first half to exert pressure on the Rangers centre-backs, Karl Svensson and Brahim Hemdani. Had Hearts shown the same enterprise on the flanks, where Nerijus Barasa, whose touch usually let him down, and Lee Wallace were mostly ineffective, the home side might have turned possession into opportunity.

If there was a flimsiness at the heart of the Rangers defence, the visitors at least looked sharp on the counter-attack and troubled Hearts with their pace. Novo's firm shot in the 17th minute prompted a decent save from Gordon while Charlie Adam's driven low cross also required the Scotland goalkeeper's attention. Less impressive was the moment when Gordon came off his line to challenge Dado Prso and Christophe Berra was required to sort out the muddle.

There was also a let-off for Hearts when Brellier gave the ball away cheaply in midfield and Barry Ferguson shot over the bar.

Ferguson's crossfield pass to Prso showed up Wallace's poor grasp of the wing-back position and the forward's cross deserved better than Novo's clumsy touch at the back post. The Spaniard made a better fist of a cut-back to Prso which sped wide of the target as Rangers dominated the later stages of the first half.

At least here was a brief glimpse of the Hearts of old when Aguiar and Mole combined to set up an opportunity for Hartley to run at the Rangers defence. It took a brave block from Hemdani to smother the threat. Although there were also a few long-range efforts from Brellier and Velicka, it wasn't until Barasa's cross from the right was bravely intercepted by Svensson that Hearts posed any threat from the flanks. Having played for most of the season with a back four, Hearts were uneasy with a system in which the wide players, Barasa and Wallace, were often caught in no-man's land. It was no great surprise when Wallace didn't re-appear for the second half and Hearts introduced Jose Goncalves.

There was a heightened sense of appetite for the fray shown by the home side at this stage with Velicka breaking from the right before firing a shot which Allan McGregor blocked at the near post. A vicious cross from Hartley also rattled the woodwork after piercing through the goalkeeper's grasp. With Gordon also called into action to parry an angled 12-yard shot from Ferguson, the second half was already an improvement on the scrappy exchanges which typified the opening 45 minutes.

The passion injected into the encounter saw Novo booked for a wild lunge at Zaliukas which might easily have merited a red card. When the Rangers supporters in the stand behind Gordon threw a number of objects on to the pitch, referee Dougie McDonald stopped the game to speak to the police.

It's a measure of the divided nature of the Hearts family at present that when Mikoliunas replaced Mole the Lithuanian was jeered onto the field. To be fair, he was eager enough to make a mark, though it seemed odd to utilise the winger as a striker when Edgaras Jankauskas was on the bench. His ballooned shot from the backpost was so wild as to be almost laughable.

Rangers could hardly believe it when Prso's cut-back in the 67th minute was met by a full-blooded volley from Boyd. The shot from five yards would surely have beaten any other goalkeeper in the SPL but Gordon somehow managed to block the effort. There was little the Scot could do, however, when Novo's 20-yard shot took a slight deflection off a defender and eluded Gordon's outstretched hand as the ball sped into the corner of the net and assured Rangers of victory.

Apparently, the Hearts coaching staff blamed the goalkeeper for the loss, which simply added to the sense of watching a circus unfold.

Taken from the Scotsman