Hearts 1 - 4 Rangers: Tynecastle rout sets up Rangers for pre-split title

Published Date: 29 March 2010
By Stuart Bathgate
THERE is only one proper response when your hopes of a treble have been dashed – go out and make sure you wrap up the double as quickly as possible. Three days after being knocked out of the Scottish Cup, Rangers made it plain they aim to do exactly that with an emphatic win against Hearts which means they are now just a dozen points from becoming champions again.
It won't quite be over by Easter, but the way in which Rangers secured these three points, albeit with the assistance of some bad defensive errors from the home side, suggested they will waste little or no time in killing off their rivals' last lingering hopes. Even with a ten-point lead over Celtic, and two games in hand, they have shown no sign of slacking, and Kevin Thomson, for one, is optimistic that they will not allow complacency to stall their progress now.

"I hope not," said the midfielder, who was playing his 100th game for the club. "The manager certainly harps on at us (about it] all the time, and as a group of players we've taken it upon ourselves to try and not allow it to creep into our game. We'll certainly be putting our foot on the pedal to try and win as many points as possible and make it mathematically impossible for them to come back. We want to do it as soon as possible." Back in December Thomson was slated in some quarters for suggesting Dundee United and his former club Hibernian, both then challenging for second place, would end up 20 points off the pace. Subsequent events have vindicated him.

"That comment was never meant in a disrespectful manner," he said. "I'm confident in our ability as a football team to win this league and basically that's what I was saying.

"I thought I was pointing out something that was consistent for quite a number of years except for when Hearts split the Old Firm. Sometimes the truth can be put out there and people don't quite accept that."

The truth on Saturday was that Hearts made it all too easy for Rangers. They conceded an early goal after failing to pick up Danny Wilson at a Thomson free-kick, allowing the centre-half to head home from the back post. Then, after getting back on terms through a Suso Santana volley after Sasa Papac had miscued a clearance, they fell behind again on the half-hour.

Marius Zaliukas gave the ball away and Rangers capitalised in seconds. A well-cushioned header from Kris Boyd set up Steven Naismith, and when his shot came back off the crossbar Kenny Miller was there to send a diving header past a helpless Jamie MacDonald.

Hearts had been the better team for the quarter-hour between their equaliser and that goal, but that was to prove their best spell of the game. Three minutes into the second half Naismith profited from slack marking to score with a low shot on the left of the box after Steven Whittaker had put him through, and the match was effectively over.

David Obua and Zaliukas had chances with headers, but Rangers were generally proving too strong in midfield. With 15 minutes to play Naismith scored his second with a free header from a free-kick, and only after that did the champions ease up.

Hearts should have narrowed the deficit when Scott Robinson spooned over from three yards out after a good run by his fellow-substitute David Templeton, but it would hardly have taken the gloss off a fine all-round Rangers performance which gave the lie to former Celtic manager Tony Mowbray's suggestion that they play in a defensive and negative way. Thomson was reluctant to be too critical of his old Hibs boss, but admitted he was more than content with the way his own team played and with the results it has brought.

"It's a fantastic situation to be in," he said of Rangers' lead. "We didn't expect that at the heart of the season – we were pretty sure that Mogga would bring his own players in and I was pretty confident he would be a success, to be honest.

"I've worked under Tony and I'm pretty sure the boys enjoyed working with him at Celtic. But it's a results business and I'd rather be in our situation than theirs.

"For me the manager has proved time and time again that he's the best manager by a mile in the country. We've scored a lot of goals this year, probably not had the credit we deserve, but we're happy to be playing the way we're playing and winning football games."

Picking up on the theme of Rangers' perceived negativity, striker Miller – after collecting his 15th goal of his SPL season – branded such claims "laughable".

As well as this emphatic victory at Tynecastle, Miller also pointed to an incredible festive period when Rangers racked up 26 goals in six SPL games.

"There is no way you can say that we are negative with the team we've got and the amount of goals we are scoring," he said.

"All you need to do is look at the month of December and that's far from a negative team. We are a good football team.

"Sometimes conditions make it harder to play and sometimes the teams you play against make it harder to play good football. But to say that Rangers are negative is laughable to be honest."

Miller also echoed the call for there to be no let up in their pursuit of an early title party.

"If we can win our next four games we will win the league up at Tannadice again. That's our target," said the striker. "We want to win all of our games and if we can do that, then it will be done before the split."

Taken from the Scotsman