Jambos heap pressure on Gers

Rangers: Lafferty 9, Ferguson 45.
Hearts: Karipidis 64, Palazuelos 67
A SECOND-HALF fightback saw Hearts come back from two goals down to claim a vital share of the spoils at Ibrox this afternoon.

Rangers had eased into a commanding lead thanks to strikes from Kyle Lafferty and skipper Barry Ferguson inside the opening 45 minutes and the Tynecastle outfit had failed to cause their hosts too many problems.

However they hit back through Christos Karipidis and Ruben Palazuelos after the break to leave Glasgow with a point in the bag.

Jamie MacDonald may only have played six times for the Hearts first team this season but the young keeper made his third appearance against Rangers, thanks to the sending off of number one choice Janos Balogh in the Edinburgh derby last weekend.

Marius Zaliukas was also on from the start, making his return to the line-up for the first time since serving a four-match SFA ban, while Mike Tullberg made it back onto the bench following a lengthy injury.

Rangers had a central pairing of Christian Dailly and Lee McCulloch at the back in the absence of David Weir, Majid Bougherra and Kirk Broadfoot.

MacDonald got his first touch after just a couple of minutes when Steve Davis tried to play Kyle Lafferty through but the 21-year-old was off his line quickly to collect the ball before the striker could get there.

However there was nothing they could do to keep Rangers out in nine minutes when Beasley tried to play in Boyd at the edge of the box but misplaced his pass and instead found Lafferty, who made no mistake in drilling the ball with some power into the net beyond MacDonald's outstretched arm.

The home side had another chance just minutes later when Lafferty played the ball across to Davis in the box and the Irishman in turn picked out Steven Whittaker but the fortmer Hibs defender could only get the slightest of touches and his effort went just wide of MacDonald's left post.

They should have doubled their advantage when the on-form Lafferty teed-up Beasley but the American couldn't get his chipped shot to dip in time and it dropped just the wrong side of the corssbar.

Lafferty had been causing the Jambos all sorts of problems but the visitors' woes were eased when the big frontman had to be taken off with an ankle injury that he had sustained in an earlier challenge with Zaliukas in the box but the Ibrox side brought on Nacho Novo in his place.

A quickly-worked free-kick saw Bruno Aguiar pick out David Obua and it looked as though Hearts might trouble Allan McGregor but the Ugandan somwehow decided to send the ball back to Aguiar instead of have a go himself from the edge of the box and his pass was a poor one, leaving the midfielder with little chance of collecting and simply handing possession back to Walter Smith's side.

Before the break Rangers had another chance when Barry Feguson broke forward but Steve Davis' shot from the edge of the box was delfected behind for a corner.

They got their second though on the stroke of the whistle when Mendes sent a beautiful ball in from the right and it was at the perfect height for Ferguson to spin round and connect with it on the volley, the power and pace leaving MacDonald with no chance.

Csaba Laszlo brought on Calum Elliot at the break in place of Cesnauskis to give nade more support up front however it was Rangers who should have sealed the win in 63 minutes when Davis threaded theball through the eye of a needle for Novo to run onto but the Spaniard saw his shot come off the base of MacDonald's left-hand post.

And the visitors did pull one back in 64 minutes after McGregor had been forced to tip Aguiar's effort over for a corner. It was swung into the box by the Portguese midfielder and when Palazuelos flicked it on, Karipidis was right behind him to divert the ball into the net with a header of his own from close range.

Within the space of three minutes the Jambos were level when Obua's ball in from the right was knocked back in to the middle by Elliot, where Palazuelos was waiting to rifle the ball past McGregor and into the back of the net.

The equaliser riled the Rangers team and their supporters and Hearts almost snatched a late winner when Elliot cut in from the right to unleash a brilliant effort on the angle that McGregor did well to push away from danger.

(* = booked)

Rangers: McGregor, Mendes, Papac, Ferguson, Boyd, McCulloch, Beasley (Naismith 74), Dailly, Lafferty (35 Novo), Whittaker, Davis. Unused subs: Alexander, Edu, Miller, Fleck, Wilson.

Hearts: MacDonald, Neilson, Wallace, Karipidis, Palazuelos, Aguiar, *Nade (Tullberg 72), Obua, Cesnauskis (Elliot 46), Zaliukas, Stewart. Unused subs: Ridgers, Jonsson, Mikoliunas, Mrowiec, Templeton.

Referee: Craig Thomson.

Attendance: 50,310

Taken from the Scotsman