Visitors steal the show but defence lacks conviction

Michael Grant at Tynecastle

4 Oct 2010

Walter Smith has told his team they are losing too many soft goals and he expects them to tighten up when the Clydesdale Bank Premier League resumes after the international break.

Rangers have won all eight domestic fixtures so far this season – and kept two clean sheets in the Champions League – but the Ibrox manager has been concerned by the quality of their defending in games against Dunfermline Athletic, Aberdeen and Hearts, during which they conceded five goals.

“The manager’s not been happy with the defending over the last couple of weeks and the goals we’ve lost,” said Steven Naismith, whose winner deep in stoppage time maintained his own irrepressible form. “With a defence as good as ours you don’t want to see it happening. The manager made it clear and I’m sure we’ll work hard after the internationals to cut them out.”

Hearts went through their defence like a hot knife through butter for the opening goal – Madjid Bougherra, Steven Whittaker and Allan McGregor were all over the place – but the day became another satisfying one for the champions. Rangers equalised through a player who might not even have been on the park if Nikica Jelavic hadn’t suffered an injury. Their winner came after a questionable free-kick and arrived so late the groundsman was ready to switch off the lights and lock the gates.

If all of that gives the impression Rangers’ win was scrambled or fortunate, it wasn’t. They dominated this exciting match. Hearts fans may have been so angered and bitter about Naismith’s winning goal that a few hotheads threw coins, lighters and plastic bottles towards him and his surrounding cast of celebrating team-mates – one missiles hit assistant referee Willie Conquer on the elbow – but they had feared it was coming.

I’ve had it [verbal abuse] many times here, I don’t know why. It’s just a bit of banter. I wasn’t hit by anything but I saw a few coins flying by.

Steven Naismith, Rangers attacker

There was a telling reaction when Tynecastle learned there would be five minutes of stoppage time: the Rangers end was delighted, many Hearts fans jeered and protested. Even then, only one team was looking like claiming a winner.

Hearts manager Jim Jefferies had a point when he groaned about a free-kick being given against Craig Thomson for a high challenge on Sasa Papac. The Rangers man was just as culpable. It was a half-hearted grumble from Jefferies, though, because he knew that Rangers had another 60 yards to cover before Naismith got his shot away on Marian Kello’s goal. Jefferies’ other gripe was about why there was so much added time for Rangers to get their winner. In fact there was no mystery to that.

The second half contained four bookings (all for Hearts players) and four substitutions. Referees are expected to add 30 seconds for each of those, which amounts to four minutes. There were stoppages for treatment to Jelavic and David Obua, too. The five minutes were explicable, and Rangers scored in the fourth of them.

Hearts gave a curious performance, part admirable and part timid. They soaked up an enormous amount of Rangers pressure over the course of the play and had excellent contributions from Kello, Ismael Bouzid and Adrian Mrowiec. Their 3-5-2 formation had the sort of smothering effect which Rangers themselves have used in their two Champions League ties. Yet Hearts attacked far too infrequently for their supporters’ liking, given that this was a game in their Gorgie fortress, and did too little to threaten.

Actually, describing it as a “Gorgie fortress” is laying it on a bit thick right now. They haven’t won any of their first four league games there, the worst start to a league season at home for 30 years. Rangers rolled over them for much of the game.

The match bubbled with incidents. Steven Davis and Papac hit the woodwork. Kello brilliantly saved a Jelavic scissor kick. Hearts received five of the game’s six bookings including one for Ian Black for what Smith described as a “nasty” foul on Jelavic. The Croatian striker limped off and will miss his country’s Euro 2012 tie in Israel on Saturday (Lee McCulloch and Kirk Broadfoot missed the match and the SFA will today decide whether they are fit to stay with the Scotland squad). All the goals were major talking points.

At least Hearts supporters had a warm glow from having Skacel back in the colours, thumping the ball into the net just like the old days. Rangers’ defending was a mess when Kevin Kyle flicked the ball on to him from Bouzid’s long pass. Rangers pressed and prodded and probed but it was 67 minutes before they hauled themselves level. Lafferty was on for the injured Jelavic and took a free-kick just outside the box. The shot was low and unremarkable – it should have been dealt with - but the wall split and Kello had too much ground to make up to reach it at his left hand side.

That accelerated Rangers’ momentum. Kyle’s terrible miss with a header in front of goal with six minutes left amounted to Hearts’ last chance. They finally fell when a free-kick was given against them in Rangers’ half. Naismith collected the ball and hared half the length of the field, exchanging passes with Lafferty and brushing off Mrowiec. He struck an angled shot which Kello could only help on its way inside his far post.

Naismith had been on the receiving end of verbals from the Hearts support and chose to cup his ear and celebrate in front of them rather than the Rangers fans, which was enough to provoke some of them to lob whatever they had in their pockets. “I’ve had it [verbal abuse] many times here, I don’t know why,” he said. “It’s just a bit of banter. I wasn’t hit by anything but I saw a few coins flying by.”

Hearts, having asked so many questions of Rangers, will now have to come up with some answers of their own as the SFA investigates.

Taken from the Herald