Rangers 2-2 Hearts

Published: 21 Mar 2009
FIRST the collapse against Celtic, then humiliation at the hands of Hearts.

Right now ragged Rangers don’t have the stomach for afternoon tea, much less a title fight.

On Saturday, their miserable March went from bad to worse as they let slip a two-goal lead — and possibly the last remnants of their fading championship dream.

Hearts weren’t at the races for the first hour as goals from Kyle Lafferty and Barry Ferguson had Gers seemingly coasting to victory.

But Walter Smith’s soft touches capitulated once more, shipping two goals in two torrid minutes.

And Hearts sub Calum Elliot could even have won it for the Tynecastle side deep in injury time. Rangers have now taken just one point from their last two SPL games at Ibrox.

Hardly the form of champions.

And the boos which rang round the ground at full-time said it all — the crestfallen Gers support think the title has gone.

The fact that Dundee United did them a massive favour on Sunday was scant consolation.

In truth, this is a result which piles the pressure on Smith and his players.

The Ibrox gaffer needed a performance after watching his side crumble in extra time in last week’s Co-operative Insurance Cup Final at Hampden.

But instead goals from Christos Karipidis and Ruben Palazuelos heaped on the heartache and pain as Gers ran out of steam and ideas.

Too many in Smith’s side were found wanting when Hearts hauled themselves level. Too many were missing in action.

And it’s not a question of bottle, it’s a question of heart.

Do they want this title badly enough? Right now the answer is a resounding NO.

Smith looked shell-shocked at the final whistle.

And he wasted no time in ripping into his Ibrox flops.

He said: “There is a bit of softness in our team. We allowed Hearts back into the game.

“We are making life extremely difficult for ourselves, especially at home. That’s five dropped points in our last two home games. That is a huge disappointment because we were the better team in both games. It’s difficult to take.

“There is certainly a real lack of resilience when we are put under a little bit of pressure.

“The players were disappointed at the end but they know they have to show more determination.

“We need to hold on to leads like the one we established against Hearts.

“I look over my time back at the club, I made us difficult to beat but then everyone told me that was the wrong thing to do.

“If they are sitting here now maybe they’ll see that’s the right thing to do with my group.”

Hearts boss Csaba Laszlo introduced Elliot at half-time and switched to a more attacking 4-4-2. But Nacho Novo came close to adding a Rangers third on 63 minutes before Laszlo’s tactical tinkering paid dividends.

Allan McGregor pulled off his first save of the afternoon when he tipped over a stunning Elliot effort but the Rangers keeper couldn’t prevent Hearts from scoring when the corner came in.

Bruno Aguiar’s deep delivery found Palazuelos unmarked and he headed back into the danger area for Karipidis to nod home.

With Rangers still coming to terms with the loss of such a soft goal, Hearts helped themselves to the equaliser just two minutes later.

David Obua, who’d blundered to hand Rangers the lead, skinned Sasa Papac before whipping a cross to the back post. Elliot took advantage of some shocking Gers defending to head the ball down for Palazuelos who drilled past McGregor.

Gers boss Smith sighed: “I don’t know if we were vulnerable but even at 2-0 you know they’re always likely to create a chance.

“We actually missed an opportunity to make it 3-0 just before they scored. We missed out on that one and it ended up costing us dearly.”

It had all started so well for Rangers, who had stormed out of the traps like a team possessed.

Lafferty — who later hobbled off with an ankle injury — fired Gers in front inside ten minutes.

And when skipper Ferguson made it two in first-half stoppage time the game looked as good as over.

But they had no answer to Laszlo’s switches. Sure, the Ibrox men went looking for a winner but they needed McGregor to save them from defeat.

With the game deep in injury time Elliot burst inside Steven Whittaker before curling an angled shot which McGregor reacted to superbly to palm the ball to safety.

But with just nine games left, draws are as bad as defeats to a Rangers side battling to stop Celtic’s quest for four-in-a-row.

Smith confessed: “We are obviously very disappointed. No one who watched the first hour of the match would have thought the final score would be 2-2.

“We’d got ourselves into such a good position, but in a few minutes we managed to undo one of our better home performances this season. It feels more like a defeat.”