Forget about beating Hearts, just keep the heart beating

Now, they're an irrelevance.

Rangers lost at home for the third game in a row but, in the bigger picture, it was meaningless for a club on the brink of oblivion.

The Gers supporters turned up in big numbers, but for them it isn't about the SPL any more.

It isn't even about Europe. It's about existence.

For the staff, it's about trying to soldier on amid the increasingly gloomy pronouncements of the administrators.

By the end of this week, we'll know in what sort of form Gers will continue, if they are to do so.

It's more than likely some of the players on display as they lost to Hearts will never again pull on the jersey.

Sad for them, of course. They've done nothing wrong.

They'll move on, get other clubs, carry on with their careers.

Will the office staff, admin people, kitchen workers — the vast army of Rangers employees behind the scenes whose jobs are also under threat — find employment so easily?

And for that reason, it was impossible to view the defiant 'Step Up For Rangers' logo on the front of the match programme as much more than window-dressing.

Gaffer Ally McCoist's match-day column four pages in, headlined 'The Most Testing Times Imaginable', was a more accurate reflection of a day when the team's display on the park matched the weather off it.

It started under thunderous, storm-laden skies. Suddenly sunlight burst through, like a promise of more optimistic times ahead. Then the game finished in a torrential cloudburst.

Similarly, Gers shook off an early start where they looked like men with their minds elsewhere to score just before the break. But as the heavens darkened the game slipped away from them. A goal made in Northern Ireland by skipper Steve Davis from Andy Little's pass just before half-time should have settled them.

A terrific strike from the game's best player, Ian Black, drew Hearts level.

With substitute Craig Beattie helping to bolster their attack, a controversial penalty award when Dorin Goian grappled with Andy Webster at a corner saw Jamie Hammill win the game when he fired in the rebound after Allan McGregor stopped his spot-kick.

Dark times off the park are inevitable for Rangers in the days to come.

It's going to be no picnic on it, either. Their next three games are Dundee United away on March 17, Celtic at home, then third-placed Motherwell away.

Goodness knows what form their starting line-up will look like by the time those fixtures come around. But the changes are already taking shape.

Halfway through the first half, three Rangers subs came out to warm up. A voice heavy with gallows humour in the stand called out 'Right, I recognise Healy. Who are the other two?'. Fair point, really.

In the corresponding meeting of these sides last February, Rangers' bench consisted of Neil Alexander, Ricky Foster, El Hadji Diouf, Kyle Bartley, John Fleck, Stevie Naismith and David Healy.

Here, it was Alexander, Healy, Alejandro Bedoya, Mervan Celik, Gregg Wylde, Kane Hemmings and Irish kid Andy Mitchell, in the squad for the first time.

Rhys McCabe did better than that. The teenager got his first game for the first team and, if he represents the club's future direction for McCoist, he'll do a lot worse.

It took the central midfielder 20 minutes to get to grips with the pace of the game. After that he was composed, comfortable in possession and had the ability to dictate Rangers' attacks.

He demanded the ball under pressure, despite being up against a couple of campaigners with plenty of know-how in the shape of Black and Adrian Mrowiec. Which brings me to Hearts. With both Rudi Skacel and Mehdi Taouil on the bench, they didn't head west intending to win new friends for the openness of their play. They stuck rigidly to a 4-1-4-1 formation until they fell behind, then had a go at 4-4-2 with Beattie coming on up front.

Fair play to them. Once they realised Rangers were short of flair and low on confidence they took full advantage and deserved their win.

For a side who haven't had their own problems to seek this season, boss Paulo Sergio did a lot for the tattered reputation of his club by cutting a dignified post-match figure, refusing to dwell on his team's win and commiserating with Gers' plight.

Would that the same could have been said for some of the home team. Goain was booked for complaining about the penalty and immediately lost the plot. Play swept to the other end and Lee McCulloch and Marius Zaliukas tangled, which led to a yellow card for the Ibrox veteran.

Goian unnecessarily raced to join in the confrontation and the defender was lucky his infantile posturing didn't earn him a second yellow.

There were certainly enough of them on show from Crawford Allan. He booked one in the first 72 minutes and another six in the last 18.

But I felt he called both penalty claims — the one Rangers didn't get when McCulloch went down under pressure from Webster and Zaliukas, and the one Hearts did — correct. Ultimately, Goian's behaviour was as pointless as the scoreline.

For him and his club, bigger battles lie ahead.