RANGERS 2 - 2 HEARTS

HOW THEY booed around Ibrox at full-time. How they poured scorn down on their team. Rangers are testing the patience of their supporters these days and the way this one unfolded had them exasperated beyond endurance. It was bad enough that they surrendered the chance to go back to the top of the SPL and lost two points in the race with Celtic; but there was something ominous about the way they had this game dead and buried only to become tame accomplices to Hearts' resurrection.

For Rangers to toss league points away six days after losing a cup final against Celtic did nothing to placate those who feel there is a malaise and lack of substance at Ibrox. They should have been able to keep their critics quiet yesterday because for an hour they comfortably controlled play against a dour Hearts team and were 2-0 ahead and coasting. Yet when Hearts pulled one back the game turned instantly, which said much about the fragile confidence of this Rangers side.

For Hearts it felt like a victory. Csaba Laszlo came in afterwards and delivered the most engaging, incoherent babble any SPL manager can ever have spouted at Ibrox. There were half-baked analogies to a chicken and a snake, something about a BMW being up against a Trabant, a description of the second half as "sexy" and an admission that he wanted to kill people in his dressing room at half-time but couldn't do so because that would have meant the jail, and missing the second half. He had the media in the palm of his hand and he knew it. At one point he broke off from his rambling to laugh along with everyone else.
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There is something of Ivan Golac about Laszlo. He is difficult to fathom. For an hour here the team he put out offered nothing. It was defensive and ineffective and didn't say much for how good a team has to be to reach third place in the SPL. At half-time he sent on Calum Elliot for Deividas Cesnauskis and asked him to offer more in the way of support for Christian Nade. In the first half Nade was up front on his own, offering no threat whatsoever to a makeshift Rangers defence which - as the second half showed - was vulnerable to a proper examination.

With Davie Weir suspended and Madjid Bougherra and Kirk Broadfoot injured, the central defence contained two square pegs in round holes in Christian Dailly and Lee McCulloch. Andy Cameron and Broxi Bear might as well have played there for the first hour, so little did Hearts go at them. That changed when Elliot came on to run about and offer some vigour. He did not score but brushed aside Steven Whittaker near the end and flashed a shot which Allan McGregor had to parry to deny Hearts a winner.

"At first I didn't think he had the power and the attitude for the SPL," said Laszlo of Elliot's return to centre stage. "He tried for three years to be the number one striker for Hearts. I told owner Vladimir Romanov and director of sport Anatoly Korobochka that it might be good for him to go out. He scored 15 goals for Livingston in half a season. He came back with real confidence. It was important for him to show to 50,000 people today that, hey, he is okay."

It was an extraordinary turnaround in the game. For much of it neither attack nor defence functioned for Laszlo. Carelessness saw them surrender the opening goal after just eight minutes. Jamie MacDonald saved a Whittaker shot but when he released the ball to David Obua the Ugandan was negligent with it and gave it away to DaMarcus Beasley. His little pass gave Kyle Lafferty the angle to shoot across goal into the net.

The goalscorer did not see half-time. He was hurt when Marius Zaliukas dispossessed him and attempted to play on after treatment only to eventually succumb and be stretchered off. Later he was seen on crutches, having sustained a badly bruised foot. The tackle which did for him was innocuous, unlike the one when Nade went through Pedro Mendes like a train, earning a booking.

Rangers dimmed after their bright start but they always had control of the first half and emphasised that by scoring again in stoppage time. Mendes took a poor corner kick but, again, possession was returned to him and he passed to the corner of the penalty area where Ferguson stopped the ball and struck a fine shot into the far corner. There might have been a second for the captain early in the second half but he lifted his finish high over the crossbar after good hold-up play by substitute Nacho Novo.

Laszlo challenged his men to react during the interval but tellingly he also changed the shape of the side in order to show more adventure. "It was better for Hearts to play 4-4-2," said Ruben Palazuelos. Even so, the first opportunity of the second half fell to Rangers: a great move from Mendes and Steven Davis put Novo through but he shot low off the foot of the post.

Finally, Hearts stirred. Elliot forced a McGregor save and a minute later Christos Karipidis scored with a header from a Bruno Aguiar corner. Rangers crumbled. Soon David Obua's cross was nodded down by Elliot for Palazuelos to finish sweetly for the equaliser.

Rangers had the time to snatch back the lead, but neither the composure nor the quality. Ibrox cleared its throat and let them know about it.

Taken from the Sunday Herald