Old Firm rivals keep pace at top

Rangers made it ten league wins in a row, maintained their four-point lead at the top of the Clydesdale Bank Premier League and, more importantly, proved that it is going to take a lot to knock them off their perch after an utterly convincing and hugely impressive victory at Tynecastle. At the same time, Celtic were beating Inverness Caledonian Thistle 2-1 at home.

The trip to Edinburgh is regarded as one of Rangers’ most difficult venues and opponents in their title run-in. In truth, thanks to Jean-Claude Darcheville’s first-half brace and a second-half double from his replacement, Nacho Novo, it was easier and more convincing than anyone could have expected — probably even the most ardent of Ibrox supporter.

Rangers produced the kind of display they will need to win the championship from Celtic. They were up for a physical battle, overran Heart of Midlothian all over the pitch and played some excellent football, mainly orchestrated by the outstanding Barry Ferguson, their captain, and Steve Davis to a lesser extent. They did not have a failure on the park.

On the other hand, Hearts were wretched and appeared to be overawed by a side that had inflicted a 4-2 defeat earlier this season at the same venue — Rangers’ biggest of the season. They did not create one clear chance and were truly diabolical.
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But that’s to take nothing away from Walter Smith’s men who were excellent throughout in what was quite possibly their most impressive performance of the season and surely posted their biggest statement of intent yet that they will take some shifting at the summit.

Hearts were afforded the rare luxury of being able to name an unchanged line-up from their weekend victory at Motherwell. Rangers had no place for Daniel Cousin, their weekend goalscoring hero against Gretna, with Darcheville employed in the now familiar lone striker role. Christian Dailly was also handed his first start in a holding role.

Dailly almost had a very big role in handing Rangers a thirteenth-minute lead when he rose in the box to nod Ferguson’s corner goalwards and Steven Naismith’s instinctive headed flick-on was brilliantly tipped over the bar by Steve Banks, whose quick reflexes in goal saved Hearts.

And given their dominance in possession, it wasn’t a great surprise when Rangers took the lead on 25 minutes. Ruben Palazuelos, Hearts’ Spanish midfield player, was caught dithering on the ball and did not notice Davis clipping at his heels and nipping the ball from him. Ferguson was astute enough to guide the ball behind him where Darcheville cut in from the left and tucked the ball under Banks and into the net. An ambitious Callum Elliot drive from the edge of the box which was never in danger of troubling Allan McGregor was about the best a strangely muted home side could muster in a very disappointing first-half display from the hosts who were largely strangled by Rangers’ grip in midfield.

It got worse for Hearts two minutes before the interval when Darcheville lashed the ball in after Hearts again failed to deal with a deep corner. This time Carlos Cuéllar nodded the ball on and it seemed to take an age to land at the feet of Darcheville, who gratefully prodded the ball in from a couple of yards out.

Rangers left Darcheville inside at the interval, much to the relief of the Hearts defence and replaced him with Novo. Their joy was to be shortlived.

It took Novo just seven second half minutes to join his replacement on the scoresheet and again Ferguson was at the heart of it. He sprayed the play out wide to Charlie Adam and his cross was poked into the net from Novo from close range, again with the centre of the Hearts defence posted missing.

That was the signal for plenty of disgruntled home supporters to leave. It was impossible to blame them for their side were being embarrassed.

Harsh? Well, it hardly gets more embarrassing than Novo netting another goal in the 70th minute with a cheeky backheeled flick from yet another Adam cross who was somehow left unchallenged down the flank again.

And we can only presume the referee, Stuart Dougal, was feeling sympathetic towards the humiliated home side as he let them get away with a clear penalty after Christos Karipidas tripped Novo in the box. With goal difference a possible factor in the destination of the league flag, it was understandable that Ally McCoist, Rangers’ assistant manager, was protesting furiously on the sidelines, even although the match was long won.

Rangers ran down the clock with a fine display of keep-ball and even the visiting supporters seemed bored by the end by the total non-event of a contest. No matter, though, for rampant Rangers.

Heart of Midlothian (4-4-2): S Banks — R Neilson, C Berra, C Karipidas, J Goncalves (sub: A Ksanavicius, 53min) — D Cesnauskis (sub: S Mikoliunas, 46), E Jonsson (sub: M Zaliukas, 65), R Palazuelos, L Wallace — C Elliot, C Nade. Substitutes not used: A Basso, K Ivaskevicius, I Tall, J Mole. Booked: Zaliukas, Ksanavicius.

Rangers (4-5-1): A McGregor — K Broadfoot, C Cuéllar, D Weir, S Whittaker — S Naismith, C Dailly, B Ferguson, S Davis (sub: K Thomson, 84), C Adam — J C Darcheville (sub: N Novo, 46). Substitutes not used: N Alexander, K Boyd, D Cousin, D Furman, S Lennon.

Referee: S Dougal.

Taken from timesonline.co.uk