Late penalty drama spares blushes for Thomson after early dismissal

Stuart Bathgate
INDISCIPLINE, an inability to score and poor goalkeeping. For the first half of a compelling encounter yesterday, it was Rangers, not Hearts, who exhibited such flaws, and as a result found themselves a man and a goal down.
Kevin Thomson had seen red on his return to competitive action after nine months out through injury, a tame, off-target effort from John Fleck had been the closest the champions got to troubling Janos Balogh in the Hearts goal, and Allan MacGregor had allowed a shot by David Witteveen to slip out of his arms and over the line.

For a team who had lost 4-0 on Europa League duty in Zagreb three days earlier and were supposed to be suffering a crisis of confidence, Hearts had played that first half with a fair measure of self-belief and conviction, and would have been two goals up at the break had Suso Santana's shot on the run gone in off the woodwork rather than rebounding harmlessly out.

It might well have been a different game if that effort had gone in, or if Hearts had conjured up a second from somewhere else. Once the teams had turned round, however, it was as if the tide had turned, and Rangers first eroded the home team's advantage, and ended up by sweeping it away entirely.

• In pictures: Hearts 1 - 2 Rangers

The introduction of Steven Smith for Fleck at the start of the second gave Rangers greater penetration, and the switch to a 3-5-1 gradually enabled them to take control of midfield. At the same time, Hearts, playing their third game in seven days, steadily saw their energy seep away, There was only so much Ian Black and Ruben Palazuelos could do in the middle of the park, and it was not enough.

David Weir and Steven Naismith were wide and high respectively with headers in the opening ten minutes of that second period, but with just over an hour gone Lee McCulloch was not so profligate from a Smith free kick awarded for a foul by David Obua on Kenny Miller, which also brought a booking for the Ugandan midfielder. Smith curled the ball in from the right, and McCulloch met the cross with his head to equalise from around 15 yards out.

If Hearts felt at that point that their luck was running out, the sentiment must have deepened a few minutes later when Calum Elliot was stretchered off with a leg injury. The substitute, like Thomson making his comeback from injury, had only replaced Witteveen just before Rangers' goal. Elliot was replaced by another forward, Arvydas Novikovas. There was a tactical case at that point for introducing a midfielder, and although Csaba Laszlo may well have decided he had none on the bench with sufficient experience, he could have opted instead to bring on Dawid Kucharski at centre-back and move Jose Goncalves to midfield.

The Hearts manager's options were limited, of course, by the unavailability through injury or suspension of Michael Stewart, Marius Zaliukas, Laryea Kingston and Andy Driver, and his decision to persist with an attacking formation came close to partially paying off late on. But by that stage of the game it was Rangers who looked like they were playing with an extra man, and Hearts who were second to every ball.

Despite that, a second goal for the visiting team was by no means inevitable, but when it came it surprised no-one. Kris Boyd, just on for Miller, got his first touch with a knock-on for Naismith to chase. Bouzid made contact with the Rangers player, and referee Craig Thomson did not hesitate in awarding the penalty. Boyd then stepped up to take his second touch of the match, and made no mistake from the spot.

Gary Glen and Suso both had chances in stoppage time to salvage a point, but in the end all Hearts got out of the game was a return of some of the self-respect which had gone missing in midweek in Croatia. Rangers got not only the three points which take them level on points again with Celtic and Hibernian at the top of the SPL as the only teams with two wins from two games so far, but also what could turn out to be a useful reminder of the dangers of starting a game slackly.

Hearts had shown their enthusiasm from the start, albeit a little too vigorously in the case of Suso, who was booked after just a couple of minutes for sliding in on Miller – the striker himself picked up a yellow card for retaliating. Rangers, on the other hand, looked half-hearted about the contest – until, that is, Thomson put in a full-blooded challenge on Black which ended his involvement in the game.

The midfielder missed the ball as he slid in, but caught Black with his trailing leg. It was a harder, faster tackle than Suso's, and as a result more dangerous, which made the difference as far as the official was concerned.

For the remaining 30 minutes of the first half it served to emphasise the difference between the teams, with Hearts calmly making use of their numerical advantage and taking the lead when Witteveen exchanged passes with Christian Nade then drove in a low shot. The slick pitch conditions did not help McGregor, but the Rangers goalkeeper should have done better than allowing the ball to squirm through his arms and over the line before he could slide back and recover his error.

In the end, however, the numerical disparity perhaps did no more than delay the Rangers comeback.

Hearts: Balogh, Jonsson, Bouzid, Goncalves, Wallace, Suso, Palazuelos, Black, Obua, Witteveen (Elliot 61, Novikovas 69), Nade (Glen 32). Subs not used: Kello, Kucharski, J Stewart, C Thomson.

Rangers: McGregor, Whittaker, Bougherra, Weir, Papac, Fleck (Smith 46), Thomson, Davis, McCulloch, Naismith, Miller (Boyd 87). Subs not used: Alexander, Aaron, Beasley, Little, Wilson.

Taken from the Scotsman