Pa-thetic!

Kenny MacDoanld, 21/03/2009
RUBEN PALAZUELOS and Christos Karipidis broke Rangers’ hearts — and left Walter Smith seething as his side suffered another title bodyblow.

The pair cancelled out goals from Kyle Lafferty and Barry Ferguson to give Hearts a 2-2 draw at Ibrox.

It came just six days after their shattering extra-time defeat in the Old Firm Co-operative Insurance Cup Final.

As Palazuelos, right, grabbed the leveller boss Smith, below, fumed: “In the space of a few minutes we managed to undo one of our better home performances. It feels like a defeat rather than a draw.”

Hearts boss Csaba Laszlo revealed: “I told the team if they were going to play that kind of s*** they should go and prepare for Mother’s Day.”

WALTER SMITH laid into his blundering Gers after they gifted Hearts a point at Ibrox.

Rangers were 2-0 ahead after a one-sided first half and goals from Kyle Lafferty and Barry Ferguson.

But they allowed Hearts to grab a point with second-half strikes from Christos Karipidis and Ruben Palazuelos.

That means Gers have dropped five points in their last two home games and missed the chance to over-take Celtic at the top of the SPL.

Gordon Strachan’s side will open up a five-point gap if they win at Tannadice today.

Smith seethed: “The big disappointment is that we’ve been the better side in 90 per cent of the last two games but we showed a softness and a lack of resilience when put under pressure in those games.

“We have a reasonable group of players but we require to show a bit more determination to hold on to leads. We’re making it extremely difficult for ourselves, especially at home.

“The result of the game was something that anyone who watched the first hour of the game wouldn’t have thought was a possibility.

“But in the space of a few minutes we managed to undo what had been one of our better home performances.

“It feels like a defeat rather than a draw.

Karipidis scores

“Against Inverness Caley we had the vast majority of possession and in those circumstances we can only blame ourselves if we don’t score goals.

“Hearts changed their system at half-time but there was no real difference in the way the game was going in the opening 15 minutes of the second- half.

“But there was a bit of softness in the team in the manner we played. We missed a chance to make it 3-0 and it ended up costing us dearly.

“The impact on the rest of the season remains to be seen, that will depend on other results.”

Rangers were booed off by a disenchanted home support but Smith aimed an acidic aside at them when he said: “When I came back here I made us difficult to beat and people said I was wrong to do that.

“When you look at this group, maybe people might think that was the right thing to do.”

Hearts boss Csaba Laszlo wanted to kill his players after their first-half display.

He said: “I told the team at half-time if they were going to play that kind of s**t they should run out of the stadium and go and prepare for Mother’s Day.

“It was a very poor first half but the second half was very sexy. Any team who’d been playing against a team playing the way we did in the first half would have felt confident.

“If you had seen our dressing room at half-time I wanted to kill some of our people.

“But if I’d done that I’d have had to go to jail and we wouldn’t have got a point.

“I had to change the tactics and convince the players we could get back into the game.”

Half-time sub Calum Elliot made a difference to Hearts. Laszlo admitted: “At first I thought I had to protect this guy because he doesn’t have the power or attitude for the SPL.

“But he went to Livingston and scored 15 goals in half a season. He had more confidence but it was important for him to show some of that today in front of 50,000 people here.

“He has no problems with speed or one-on-ones but he still has problems in his head.

“Tactically he still does a lot of wrong things and I’m always standing trying to tell him what to do.

“But if the Rangers keeper hadn’t made the save at the end we’d have taken three points.”

Rangers defender Steven Whittaker admitted: “We started so well and it looked like we were going to coast it.

“But in the second half they changed formation and went for it and we let two points slip. we still believe we can do it but it’s disappointing to be losing so many points at home.”

Whittaker admitted the fans’ edginess got to them.

He said: “You have to block the supporters out sometimes — when you’re leading they’re behind you but they ended up disappointed, same as oursleves.”

Ruben Palazuelos, who scored Hearts’ equaliser, said: “We were very poor in the first half and the manager was very angry with us.”

Rangers’ miserable day was complete when goalscorer Kyle Lafferty limped off with an ankle injury. He faces a spell on the sidelines.