Hearts barge way into Old Firm's private party

Stevenson (77)

Rangers 0
GIVEN the fad for 3D in cinema and television, it is perhaps only appropriate that Hearts have barged their way into the Scottish Premier League title race in such forceful fashion.

By adding a third dimension to the Old Firm's traditional private pursuit of the championship, Jim Jefferies and his players have provided a hugely welcome level of drama and intrigue to the campaign.

As vanquished Rangers manager Walter Smith observed in the aftermath of his team's first away league defeat of the season on Saturday, a sustained challenge from a club such as Hearts would be far more effective in addressing the stagnant nature of top-flight Scottish football than any reconstruction plan the SPL can cobble together.

Smith is better placed than anyone to recognise a performance which is the mark of potential champions and the man who is seeking to mark his final season at Ibrox with a tenth title win certainly witnessed one at a febrile Tynecastle.

Unfortunately for Smith, it did not come from his own team despite the reigning champions delivering one of their best footballing displays in some time. It was Hearts, despite spending much of an utterly absorbing afternoon on the back foot, who showed they now have the vital knack of winning matches when not at their best. It is a facility Rangers have mastered under Smith and which Jefferies, to his great credit, appears to be instilling in a Hearts side brimming with unity and purpose.

Having dropped 16 points from their opening ten games of the campaign, Hearts have now taken 31 points from a possible 33 in a remarkable 11-match unbeaten run which will see them roll up at Celtic Park on Wednesday night in a position to make another powerful statement of intent.

Ryan Stevenson, the match winner for Hearts on Saturday with a 77th- minute goal which saw three-quarters of the stadium become almost unhinged in delight, believes he and his team-mates are capable of coping with the increasing level of expectation surrounding their tilt at the Glasgow giants. "There was a lot of hype surrounding the game against Rangers and the fact we're now mounting some kind of challenge," said Stevenson. "If we had lost, everyone would have just said it would have been expected. But we've shown we can handle the hype. We've got belief in the squad we've got here

We know how good we can be and we feel we can beat anyone.

"Celtic will come flying out of the traps against us on Wednesday night, I'm sure. Rangers did the same on Saturday but we managed to hang on and get the result.

"Rangers basically bat tered us from start to finish, yet we still managed to take all three points.

"That's the sign of a good team. You're never going to play well in every game, but if you can somehow grind out a win, you must be doing something right. Rangers have done it plenty of times over the years, so we'll take a lot of confidence from the fact we've now done it to them.

"To sustain it over the full campaign is going to be a massive ask for us. People will say that's us now in the title race, but we have to play at Celtic Park on Wednesday night and then go to Ibrox the following midweek. If we can come through that and are still within touching distance, then we can say we're contenders."

For the first 40 minutes of this match, it looked likely Hearts would simply be exposed as pretenders to Rangers' throne.

The visitors, dominant in midfield through Steven Davis, Maurice Edu and Jamie Ness, completely controlled the tempo and momentum of the match and should have established a commanding lead before half-time.

Hearts were indebted to goalkeeper Marian Kello, who set the tone for his stellar display with a fine save to keep out a Kyle Lafferty shot after just 28 seconds. It was the first of a series of stops which frustrated Rangers and kept the home side in contention, the pick of the bunch a fabulous diving save to keep out a 20-yard screamer from Ness which was bound for Kello's top left hand corner.

Just before the interval, Hearts finally emerged from their shell to threaten Allan McGregor's goal, and captain Marius Zaliukas might even have snatched the lead for his side when he wastefully headed a corner wide from close range.

It was a tactical switch from Jefferies early in the second half which turned the game in Hearts' favour. He withdrew young winger David Templeton, who had been neutralised by Steven Whittaker, and switched to a 4-4-2 formation with substitute Gary Glen forming the strike pairing with Stephen Elliott.

It meant Stevenson, who had been operating as a makeshift lone striker in the absence of the injured Kevin Kyle, dropped back into a midfield area where Hearts were now not so overrun by Rangers.

Ironically, it was from his new position that Stevenson scored his first Tynecastle goal for the club. Terrific work down the left from Lee Wallace, whose return to action is a significant boost for Hearts going into the final four months of the season, saw the full-back find Elliott on the edge of the penalty area. His low drive was on target but tame.

Stevenson, lurking on the six-yard line, stopped it with his right foot before smashing it beyond McGregor with his left.

Rangers almost rescued a point, which they would have more than merited, when Nikica Jelavic latched onto fellow sub John Fleck's cross to acrobatically strike the underside of Kello's crossbar from close range.

It was that kind of day for Smith's men, the kind they have inflicted upon opponents many times themselves. They would head back along the M8 on Saturday fully aware that the threat to their title defence is no longer solely from one source.

Man of the match

Marian Kello (Hearts)

Any team with championship aspirations requires the services of a goalkeeper who is worth his weight in points. Kello's first-half contribution on Saturday was absolutely crucial to Hearts taking all three from this game, the Slovakian clocking up his ninth clean sheet of an increasingly impressive season.

Referee: M Tumilty

Attendance: 16,737

Taken from the Scotsman