Sucker punch for champions

Rangers 0

Well, well, what have we got here? We might be mistaken, but this is beginning to look like a substantial Hearts assault on the Old Firm cartel, a sustainable bid to shake up the natural order of things in this country.

It doesn't take a lot to bring thunder to Tynecastle, so you can imagine what the madhouse was like after this tumultuous knockout of the champions.

Rangers punched and punched and punched and couldn't score. And then they got hit with a sucker punch, a close-range jab from Ryan Stevenson that had the old place in a state of delirium.

This, we said, was the big test of Hearts' mettle, a pressure game to examine their credibility in this championship. And, boy, how they passed it. Sure, Rangers had most of the best chances and, yes, Nikica Jelavic smashed a vicious shot off the underside of Marian Kello's crossbar in the closing minutes, but none of that mattered a damn. Walter Smith spoke of the cruel irony of watching his team put in their best performance at Tynecastle since his return to the club four years ago and still ending up a beaten team, a remark that would have made the day even sweeter for the home support.

It was a game where only the bottom line mattered and the bottom line tells us that Hearts have now won ten of their last 11 SPL matches and have drawn the other. They are on a delicious run. They are now just two points behind Rangers, albeit the champions have a game in hand. This was the first time Smith's team have been beaten on the road all season. Heady stuff, indeed.

The fact that Hearts won without the services of their main striker, Kevin Kyle, made it all the more significant. The depth of their squad is decent. They're a resilient mob. Of course, the tests will keep coming for them now. They're at Parkhead on Wednesday night and have a trip to Ibrox a week later and if they can work their way through that minefield unbeaten then the Old Firm will be taking a collective gulp. Of that, you can be certain.

The intriguing thing yesterday was the sharp edge to Rangers play, in the opening 20 minutes in particular, and how it counted for nothing in the end.

This was a team performing on the top of its game, bossing the midfield, hustling the Hearts dangermen out of it at every turn and launching counter-attacks with a speed and accuracy of passing that had the home defence in a spin at times. The precision fell away when the time came to pull the trigger, but for a spell this was as good as we've seen Rangers for quite some time. Hearts did very well to survive it.

Kello made five saves in a fantastic opening for the visitors.

Now, some were straight at him and some marginally to his side, but the saves had to be made all the same. The first of them came after just 30 seconds when Kyle Lafferty, toiling badly up front on his own in the post-Kenny Miller era, snapped in a low shot that Kello saved smartly, pushing it away for a corner. The goalkeeper saw nothing but danger coming at him for a little while after, most of it blasting through the heart of the midfield where Jamie Ness and Maurice Edu were eating up the ground box to box.

Ness had a little spell that showed the immense promise the boy has, sprinting on to a Steven Naismith pass up the left and forcing a save out of Kello at his near post one minute and in the next breath trying his luck from distance with that lovely left foot of his. He smashed a rising shot on goal and it was only Kello at full stretch that managed to poke it away. A terrific save and followed by another decent one soon after, when Edu harried Marius Zaliukas out of possession in midfield and put a ball through for Lafferty, who could only smack it at the Hearts goalkeeper.

That was four Kello saves and the fifth came in the 22nd minute, this time Naismith firing down his throat after he galloped up his left wing. Hearts had barely existed in the game by this point. Before the break, there were signs of life in their attack, but Rangers started the second half in dominant mood again and it seemed a matter of time before they found their range.

Jefferies changed things around, taking the ineffective David Templeton off, moving Stevenson back into the midfield and bringing on Gary Glen to partner Stephen Elliott up front. The switches worked. Hearts slowed the tide of Rangers attacks and got on the ball a little themselves, creating precious little but at least asking the odd question of the visiting defence. That said, when the goal came it was a shock, not least to Allan McGregor who barely had a thing to do up to that point.

It all began with Lee Wallace, fit again and impressive for Hearts. He took himself up the left wing and got past Ness and Steven Davis before putting a cross into the Rangers box. Rangers had any amount of cover in there, but not many of them had their brains in gear. Elliott connected with the cross with a left-foot shot, the ball carrying to Stevenson who took a touch and slipped it past the Rangers goalkeeper. Scrappy, perhaps. But beauty is in the eye of the beholder. To the Tynecastle masses, it was a goal of the richest quality. The dream continues.

To Parkhead, with attitude.

Taken from the Scotsman