Rangers 2 Hearts 2

Mar 23 2009 Hugh Keevins Reports

IT'S a long-established tradition for supporters to lose patience with managers whenever results take a serious turn for the worse.

But Walter Smith seems intent on reversing the process as an internal dispute procedure is invoked at Ibrox on the back of a lost cup and two potentially-damaging championship results.

The man who said disappointment takes longer to get over at his age 24 hours before this game started was handed a setback that would have tested the constitution of a horse.

But the manager wasn't looking for sympathy or a diversionary tactic when he spoke afterwards.

Smith had his targets lined up in the right order, first of all issuing a damning indictment of the players who somehow contrived to turn a two-goal lead in front of 50,000 of their own fans into a draw.

Who among those players could have failed to be wounded by the comment they were "Soft and lack resilience under pressure?"

But there comes a point in any manager's post-match Press conference when you know he's going to leave after delivering a punch-line that invites no further questioning and underlines his true feelings.

Smith had his hands on the table in front of him and was levering himself upright to make a quick departure when he leaned into the microphone and said: "I made Rangers difficult to beat and got criticised for it.

"Maybe some people might now see that's the right thing to do with my group."

It was an obvious reference to the flak the manager got last season for alleged negativity while taking Rangers to two domestic cup finals, the UEFA Cup Final and a last-day finish to a championship won by Celtic while playing with one man up front.

Earlier this season Smith had also denounced the faceless fans on the internet who sniped at his Rangers side whenever things went wrong. The manager has, at the age of 61, reached the reflective stage, and his observation on life would seem to be that he got no credit when things were going well and only receives abuse while he's trying to rectify the situation on dwindling resources and an even more limited squad.

There has to be a common denominator which explains a lastminute defeat from Inverness Caley Thistle at Ibrox, the disappearing act performed against Celtic at Hampden in the Co-operative Insurance Cup Final and the transformation that turned certain victory into a fans' demonstration of disgust on Saturday.

Those who have no time for the manager always say the media will overlook his part in all that and put him under the equivalent of the witness protection scheme while others are charge with negligence.

But Hearts were so bad for an hour on Saturday that Csaba Laszlo cut to Csaba the chase and summed up their exhibition as "s**t afterwards. It wasn't even as good as that.

But somehow, in the space of five in minutes, the Edinburgh side managed to have their first shot at goal followed shot by two strikes that levelled the score and sent Ibrox into a bad mood.

The loss of one goal was careless.Two was calamitous.

Smith said: "It feels like a defeat. We had 90 per cent off ofthe game and were the better side. It's difficult to take.

"If you fail to score against Inverness and they win then you've only got yourselves to blame.

"We managed dto undo one of our to better performances of the season at home after having had a two-goal lead on Hearts. Anybody who watched the first half wouldn't have thought that was possible."

Barry Ferguson might have illustrated a premature mood of celebration that was significant when he made the gesture that accompanied the goal he scored to put Rangers two up on the verge of half time.

The captain's finger went up to his lips to symbolise the fact it was time the crowd kept quiet where their criticism of the team was concerned.

But it turned out to be an empty act of defiance as Ibrox emptied itself of even more resentful fans even before the final whistle.

Those who stayed only did so to make their ill-feeling abundantly clear.

The team that was chosen to start the match, reintroducing DaMarcus Beasley in a wide role and pairing Kris

Boyd with Kyle Lafferty up front, was obviously the correct one because Hearts were blown off the park to begin with.

The loss of Lafferty to injury was a blow because he was by far the sharpest attacker and opened the scoring. But that doesn't excuse what happened in the last half hour.

There has to be player responsibility for that capitulation before attention's paid to a manager left bewildered on the touchline.

Softness? Lack of resilience under pressure? Hands up who sees themselves fitting that description?

The Cup Final the weekend before was lost as soon as Celtic scored at the start of extra time.

The crowd could all have gone home then because Rangers had nothing to offer in the face of adversity other than their own vulnerability.

Hearts did their level best to hand the game to Smith's side, gifting them an opening goal off a bad pass from David Obua after only eight minutes.

They didn't even have one attempt on target in the first 60.

But Laszlo's side went from laughable to laudable because they had the determination to retrieve their situation once they got the whiff of desperation from Rangers.

The quick fix where recovery is concerned is to say if Nacho Novo scores off a magnificent pass from Steve Davis to make the score 3-0 then Rangers win handsomely.

What torments the manager is that the Spaniard hit the post and Hearts used the let-off as their springboard to aresult it had looked impossible to get with quickfire goals from Christos Karipidis and Ruben Palazuelos.

The title this season is vital to Rangers because it brings a financial boost of millions due to Champions League access. The penalty for failure is hardship of a kind that can only force the selling of assets and a consequent reduction of power.

The burden of responsibility for securing Rangers' immediate future rests on the shoulders of players who have now been described by the man who knows them best as soft and lacking resilience under pressure.

The remainder of the season is therefore a tightrope walk with no safety net underneath to catch those who can't stand heights.

Men who have been told they crack under strain should feel that's an affront to their professional pride and do something about it in their own defence. Will they ?

MAN OF THE MATCH Allan McGregor (Rangers)

MAGIC MOMENT McGregor's save from Calum Elliot at the end spared Rangers the ultimate embarrassment.

Taken from the Daily Record