Hearts hold Rangers with big names missing

The official line from Hearts was that Gordon had failed to recover from a groin injury that had kept him out of last weekend’s defeat of Falkirk, while Hartley’s omission was “football business”, according to head coach Valdas Ivanauskas. However, both players have been subject to transfer speculation, with Fulham reportedly having increased their £2.5m bid for Gordon and Hearts apparently in talks with yesterday’s opponents over midfielder Hartley, who was given his break in international football by Walter Smith, the new Rangers and former Scotland manager.

It should have been a week of celebration for Hearts fans after the acquisition of land surrounding their Tynecastle home that will allow for redevelopment of the aged main stand and take the ground’s capacity from just over 17,000 to 26,000. It was this promise that had convinced supporters to sweep Vladimir Romanov into outright ownership of the club when they faced being made homeless nearly two years ago, but the extended influence the Lithuanian-based businessman has on team affairs had apparently reared its head again yesterday.

On the field, Libor Sionko started in Rangers’ midfield for the first time since Smith became manager at Ibrox, and the Czech international passed up the best opportunity of the first half when he somehow prodded the ball wide from inside the six-yard box, having been set up by Kris Boyd’s header.

It wasn’t until the 75th minute that either side had the ball in the net, but Barry Ferguson had achieved the feat from an offside position, allowing Hearts to cling on.

Aberdeen moved above Hearts and into third place after defender Andrew Considine opened his account for the club with both goals in a 2-0 defeat of St Mirren at Love Street. The 19-year-old produced a clinical finish on eight minutes following Steve Lovell’s flick-on from a Scott Severin throw. Then, with eight minutes remaining in the first half, Considine doubled his career tally when he converted Barry Nicholson’s corner with an excellent volley from 15 yards.

Aberdeen goalkeeper Jamie Langfield preserved the two-goal advantage, and Considine’s day, on 80 minutes when he made an excellent save from Richard Brittain’s penalty after the young defender had brought down Kirk Broadfoot.

Hibernian moved to within two points of fourth spot with a 2-0 win over Motherwell at Easter Road. Scott Brown, who has been interesting Portsmouth and was, alongside midfield partner Kevin Thomson, subject of an unsuccessful £4.5m bid from Celtic last week, opened the scoring midway through the second half when he coolly dispatched Ivan Sproule’s cutback from 14 yards, and Abdessalam Benjelloun added the second in stoppage time.

Kilmarnock moved into the top six with a 2-0 victory at Falkirk, who had started the day above their visitors on goal difference. Both goals were scored in the space of seven minutes midway through the first half. First, Steven Naismith released Colin Nish with an incisive pass that the forward buried beyond Kasper Schmeichel, son of former Manchester United goalkeeper Peter. Six minutes later, Naismith was on hand to lash the ball home from close range after Rocco Quinn’s corner had been headed off the underside of the bar by Simon Ford.

Dunfermline remain firmly at the foot of the Premierleague table after a goalless draw against Dundee United at Tannadice. Recent United signing Jon Daly thought he had scored his first goal for the club on 31 minutes, but he was penalised for barging into Dorus De Vries, the Dunfermline goalkeeper. League leaders Celtic travel to face Inverness this afternoon looking to record their first win in the Highlands for nearly two years, which would open a 19-point advantage at the top of the table.

Taken from timesonline.co.uk