GERS GAVE CSABA HEART

Graeme Bryce

Scorers: HEARTS: Zaliuska, Kingston RANGERS: Karipidis (og)

CSABA LASZLO put a huge dent in Rangers’ title hopes — then revealed he had Walter Smith to thank for the victory.

The Hearts boss watched DVDs of every Gers game on their march to last season’s UEFA Cup Final and nicked their tactics to claim a famous win.

The Romanian packed his midfield to strangle the life out of Rangers playmakers Barry Ferguson and Pedro Mendes and used Christian Nade as a lone battering ram up front. Then he made the most of carefully constructed set-pieces to break his opponents’ resistence.

First-half goals from Marius Zaliuska and Laryea Kingston — both as a direct result of Christophe Berra nodding down Bruno Aguiar free-kicks — left Smith’s side with a mountain to climb after 23 minutes.

An own goal by Greek midfielder Christos Karipidis three minutes later put Rangers back in touch, and when Lee Wallace was sent off for two bookings in the space of five minutes near the end, Hearts were on the rack.

While Hearts’ stars are still waiting for their wages it was the handsomely paid Rangers staff who were bankrupt of ideas as they failed to equalise.

Laszlo insisted money wasn’t everything and he joked: “I don’t know if I have been paid this week. I was in Uganda for two years and made so much money it doesn’t matter to me!

“I never thought about salaries or wages today, all I focussed on was football. I have a good relationship with the owner and the best payment I received today was three points from Rangers. Football is not always about how big your budget is.

“When I was with Uganda we caused a lot of upsets and I studied a lot of different teams and their styles.

“I watched Argentina, Brazil and learned a lot. I also learned a lot from Mr Smith and what he was doing with Rangers last season.

“I watched every game Rangers played in the UEFA Cup and I admired what he achieved against the odds.

“What did I learn? I learned to close down my opponents in midfield. I learned to get in about Ferguson and Mendes to stop their passing game. I learned how to make them play long balls all the time and made sure we won all the knockdowns.”

Hearts were forced into a change before kick-off when keeper Janos Balogh failed to recover from the virus which had prevented him from training on Friday.

In his place, Laszlo called on former Scotland Under-21 keeper Jamie MacDonald, whose only other appearance had come against Rangers in a 2-0 defeat at Ibrox.

That meant a snub for former FC Kaunas No1 Marian Kello who had last clashed with Gers in the Champions League.

Hearts fans taunted their rivals before kick-off with chants of: ‘You got beat by our wee team’ and Rangers soon discovered Vladimir Romanov’s first string were way too much of a handful as well.

Despite the latest cash glitch at Tynecastle Csaba’s boys were quickly in credit as they deposited two goals past Allan McGregor before Rangers were even open for business. If the biting cold didn’t take your breath away, the football did with its sheer intensity.

Against Celtic, Hearts had found themselves down and out inside 20 minutes as goals from Shaun Maloney and Gary Caldwell knocked the stuffing out of them.

This time they were the ones who rolled their sleeves up and got stuck in to strike twice before the white-shirted visitors had time to run up the white flag.

Andy Driver trundled a low shot at McGregor from 25 yards inside the opening minute, then Aguiar swept a corner kick on to the roof of the net before the fired-up Jambos finally cashed in.

They took the lead after 20 minutes when Aguiar swept in a free-kick and Berra outjumped Madjid Bougherra at the back post.

McGregor did well to block Berra’s header but he couldn’t prevent Zaliuska ramming it home at the second attempt.

Three minutes later, it all happened again. Another Aguiar free kick whipped in, Berra again outjumped Bougherra at the back post and, though McGregor managed to get his fingertips to the inital header he set it up for Kingston.

Amazingly, the smallest guy on the pitch had to STOOP to head home from close range with Rangers’ defence all over the place.

They did rally three minutes later when this pulsating affair was punctuated by a third goal from a set-piece and again it was Hearts who won the aerial battle.

But this time Karipidis must have wished he hadn’t as he beat Kris Boyd to Charlie Adam’s free-kick and his looping header caught the underside of the crossbar and bounced over the line, despite his valiant attempt to keep it out.

However as Bougherra, Boyd and Whittaker all made it into the book as Rangers’ frustrations grew, it was Kingston who came closest to adding to the scoreline when McGregor used his legs to block the Ghanaian’s shot just before half time.

Rangers looked better after Chris Burke came on for Charlie Adam and when Lee Wallace chopped down the little winger after 76 minutes the Hearts defender had to go, as he was yellow carded for the second time in five minutes.

However 10-man Hearts deserved to hang on and deliver another huge kick in the teeth to a Rangers side who have now dropped 10 points from nine away games this season.

Afterwards Smith was asked if he felt Rangers now had to win all their remaining games now to catch leaders Celtic.

He said: “You always have to win your games when you are with Rangers anyway.

“I don’t know about must-win games because the pressure here is to win every game you play.

“We had a bit of a struggle from a defensive point of view and we gave away too many fouls.

“They scored two goals from set-pieces and that was clearly our biggest problem today.

“We also failed to create any great opportunities to score but overall, our inability to handle high balls has cost us.

“We have been plagued by not defending set pieces well enough and it was exactly the same against Dundee United.

“We showed a little bit of anxiety in the early stages and we didn’t deal with their deliveries.

“The consistency that Celtic have shown this season means the three Old Firm games are going to be vital and the pressure has now been heaped firmly on to ourselves.”

HEARTS: McDonald, Neilson, Zaliuskas, Berra, Wallace, Kingston (Jonsson 64), Karipidis, Palazuelos, Aguiar (Cesnauskis 81), Driver, Nade (Obua 84).Subs not used: Kello, Makela, Mole, Thomson.

RANGERS: McGregor, Broadfoot, Bougherra, Weir, Whittaker, Lafferty, Ferguson, Mendes, Adam (Burke 56), Darcheville (Novo 72), Boyd. Subs not used: Alexander, Edu, McCulloch, Niguez, Loy.