Hearts hand Rangers the last laugh

By TOM ENGLISH
AT IBROX
RANGERS 2-1 HEARTS

DEAR oh dear. Heart of Midlothian, you find new ways to amaze us, you really do. If the slapstick of your set-up doesn't provide enough material for a laugh-a-minute sitcom you come to Ibrox and give us a moment like the one that decided this game, an incident of pure theatre to settle a game that was disappointing in the extreme.

The teams were locked at 1-1 with three minutes remaining when the central character, Eduardas Kurskis, the goalkeeper who – yes, you guessed it – is on loan from Kaunas, did his thing. The details? Sorry, Eduardas. Look away now. Rangers took a short free-kick on the left edge of Kurskis's penalty area, Charlie Adam touching it to Alan Hutton. The full-back drove it towards goal, the ball carrying to Lee McCulloch who took a swipe at it. Up into the air it went. Out came Kurskis with his hands aloft, down came the ball, away it spilled from his grasp, behind and in.

This was the biggest Christmas present Walter Smith could have hoped for. "Lee has been frustrated at not scoring as many goals as he'd like," said Smith. "By all accounts he's claiming the second goal. When you're desperate you'll claim anything."

Smith was in good form, his mood a lot brighter after the match than it probably was before, when he saw a load of transfer speculation slapped all over the tabloids. Daniel Cousin, Brahim Hemdani, Kris Boyd and Thomas Buffel are all on the way out if you believe the red tops. What about the possible arrival of Kenny Miller, he was asked after the match. "I don't want to comment on that," he said, "but I'd better bring somebody in because apparently everybody else is leaving." This was said with tongue-in-cheek. It's possible the attitude of the Rangers manager would have been a little more unforgiving had Kurskis not thrown the ball into his own net to gift him a winner.

His players were under pressure yesterday. Already five points behind Celtic (admittedly with two games in hand) they needed a lift. Smith made changes. Boyd and McCulloch began the game up front with Steven Naismith starting in an advanced midfield/third striker role. Hemdani remained in the midfield and there was no Kevin Thomson and, more tellingly perhaps, no Cousin. The Gabon-born Frenchman, who only seems to put in an honest day's graft when it suits him, is not long for Ibrox, you feel.

Rangers had a bit of something about them early on, even if it diminished not long after they took the lead and completely emptied by the time Hearts got their equaliser. After four minutes we had the sight of Charlie Adam curling a banana shot on to Kurskis's left-hand post. A let-off, then, for Hearts and they got a couple more before eventually they fell behind. Hearts, at this point, were standing around like dummies just waiting to be knocked over. They had absolutely nothing going for them. In the 17th minute the inevitable happened and Rangers scored

Adam got things rolling with a long ball forward that Boyd competed for but could not win. No matter. The two covering Hearts defenders, Jose Goncalves and Eggert Jonsson, didn't get a grip on the situation early enough and McCulloch powered his way in and placed his shot beautifully past Kurskis. McCulloch's excitement got the better of him in the aftermath for he got booked for leaving the field of play.

Not long after, the Rangers man had another effort that came dangerously close to making it two, his rasping shot staying out only because it smacked off Calum Elliot en-route. The win looked likely for Rangers at this stage, though. Hearts had everyone behind the ball. They were determined to deny Rangers a second goal but were set up so unambitiously there was a great mystery as to how they intended to score one of their own. On the balance of play, you just couldn't see where it was coming from.

Rangers' early intensity faded badly as the first half wore on, though. "We'd played well enough and should have been more than one goal ahead," said Smith. "And you concern yourself a little when you're not. Hearts always have levels of motivation against Rangers that are extremely high." In the second half, if not the first. A clever substitution was made at the break, the ineffectual Saulius Mikoliunas being replaced by Kestutis Ivaskevicius. The Lithuanian slotted in wide on the right and made hay early in the new half, making Steven Whittaker's life a little difficult.

Slowly, some semblance of confidence and forward thrust entered the Hearts ranks. Approaching the hour, Robbie Neilson went down under a heavy challenge from Whittaker on the right wing. Free-kick Hearts, yellow card Whittaker. Ibrox was about to fall very silent indeed.

Andrew Driver took the free-k
ick and only one man rose to meet it. Velicka. He towered above everyone and headed it clinically past McGregor. The big men in the Rangers defence ought to have hung their heads but you had to hand it to Velicka. The guy had one decent chance to score and he took it.

Being Hearts, the first thing they did was take off Velicka. He wasn't injured. It's just their way. Regardless of form, get him off. Frail said Velicka was tiring but equally he admitted that it wasn't his decision to substitute him. This was the Hearts funny factory in full cry.

And it was tears in the end for the visitors thanks to Kurskis's moment of high farce. Frail was asked to explain why this fella is keeping goal for his team and you didn't need to be a genius to read between the lines of what he was saying. Quite simply, Frail doesn't know either. It's another fine mess Hearts have gotten themselves into.

Taken from the Scotsman