Karipidis reveals Hearts players' fury over sloppy first half

Karipidis himself was on the scoresheet, giving Hearts hope in the 64th minute, and the comeback was complete when Ruben Palazuelos hit a stunning equaliser just three minutes later.

Manager Laszlo had changed his formation at the break, putting Calum Elliot on in place of Deividas Cesnauskis and switching to a 4-4-2 formation.

Giving Christian Nade the support he craved certainly seemed to work and gave the Tynecastle outfit an added threat. Karipidis was delighted with the attitude displayed after the brutal half-time evaluation by their coach.

He said: "I think that it was a good result for us but we gave them too many chances in the first half and they could have maybe scored more.

"In the dressing-room at half-time all of the players were disappointed and angry with the way that we had been playing.

"The manager spoke with us and we spoke and tried to change a lot of things because we hadn't been playing well.

"In the second half, it was like a different team, we played very well and went out there and tried to score.

"I think that when Rangers scored it was still very early in the game and we felt that we had lost control a little bit. The goal knocked our confidence and then when they got the second goal it was even more difficult for us.

"The manager, though, tried to wake us up and make us more aggressive – and I think that it worked."

Prior to last weekend's defeat to Hibs, the Jambos had been on an unbeaten four-game run in the SPL and were already five points clear of Dundee United in third place. That cushion remains the same today thanks to Dundee United's 2-2 draw with Celtic at Tannadice on Sunday – Aberdeen are level on points with Craig Levein's men and just ahead on goal difference – and Karipidis insisted Hearts had no excuse for looking so out of sorts against Walter Smith's men. "To me, I don't think that we had any reason for our confidence to be low going into the game against Rangers because we had only lost the one game," said the Greek centre-back.

"Obviously, it was disappointing to lose to Hibs the previous week but it was just the one match, before that we had been doing quite well in the league.

"We must try to keep our attitude and confidence up at the highest level. We have eight games left in the league and every single one of them is important for us.

"This is football, you need confidence to play well and to get the right results."

Hearts remain in the driving seat to land one of two places available through the SPL to the Europa League next season, with Aberdeen, Dundee United, Hibs and Motherwell also in the hunt.

Having been over the course many times with Hearts and former club PAOK Salonika, Karipidis knows the importance of remaining fully focused on the task in hand.

Despite their points advantage with just eight games of the season remaining, he's refusing to take anything for granted and continued: "It is too early to speak about Europe because right now we still have a lot of games left.

"If we don't play well over the next few weeks then everything can change very quickly, there are a lot of good teams in this league now and it is very tight between us.

"We are all chasing third place in the league and European football and, at the moment, we have a five-point gap over Dundee United.

"We will see what happens. All you can do is look after your own results and give 100 per cent.

"I have some experience of this because my last team always played for the UEFA Cup place and I cannot tell you how important it is that we maintain our focus and our concentration.

"We need to be strong and win a lot more games."

Results like Saturday's at Ibrox can only help the Jambo cause, both in points value and confidence levels, and Karipidis insisted that he never gave up on the points even when Hearts went two goals down.

When the half-time whistle was blown there looked to be little hope of a fightback, but Karipidis said: "I never gave up – even when we were two goals down because I know that we have good players in our side and that we have a real belief in ourselves.

"Even if we had lost then I don't think it would have been the end of the world for us. Okay, it would not have been a good result for us, but we would still have been in third place in the table and that is what we have to do. It would also have meant that we would have lost two games in a row which is not so good.

"But I thought that there were lots of positives to be taken from the second half. We chased, we ran, we scored two goals at Ibrox in front of a lot of their fans and this is very important for us."

The goal was only Karipidis' second of the season, the other coming at Rugby Park back in January and the big Greek was delighted to see his name back on the scoresheet, adding: "It was good to get the goal, I had to wait for the linesman and the referee to decide but I was already sure because I think the ball was quite far over the line, maybe half a metre.

"The linesman had a good position, so he could see it was a goal.

"I scored earlier this season against Kilmarnock and it is always nice to get a goal. Hopefully, there will be a few more to come this season."

Taken from the Scotsman