Hearts deny Rangers with 2-1 victory

Hearts dealt the Rangers a massive blow in their title aspirations as they handed the Gers a 2-1 defeat at Tynecastle.

The Rangers were empty of attacking flourish and I suspect Hearts 'keeper Jamie MacDonald might be feeling a bit spry this evening because he certainly won't be fatigued from the match. Hearts took the lead twenty minutes in as skipper Christophe Berra's header was saved by Allan McGregor but the rebound came to Marius Žaliūkas and the on-loan FBK Kauna-man snapped the ball into the net. Only three minutes later, another rebound off a Christophe Berra attempt, resulted in a goal as the hot-tempered Laryea Kingston headed-in the ball. A further three minutes later Rangers drew one back as a Kris Boyd header pinballed off the bar and Christos Karipidis into the net. With the score 2-1, Rangers were unable to launch a reasonable effort. With twenty-four minutes remaining, the Gers were gifted a man advantage as Lee Wallace was sent off with his second yellow but still they could not break-through and the match ended with Hearts winning 2-1.

After the match, Walter Smith said:

"Hearts did well but we made it easy for them and we didn't create an awful lot up front. That was surprising because we've made a lot of opportunities in previous matches but never came up with any of note many here. Hearts deserve credit. They had their players back in position and played very much in the manner we played in a number of games last season. They did very well. We spent the last hour of the game almost entirely in Hearts' half of the pitch but never really created any opportunities to score.""You're going to miss players of that quality but you're going to go through the season without some people and there are no excuses there.

"We're still good enough without them. I felt in the first 20 minutes or so that we struggled in a defensive sense by giving away too many fouls. That gave Hearts the opportunity to get the ball into our area and we ended up losing two goals from such situations. With the consistency Celtic have shown, any points that we drop are a blow to us and it certainly means the three Old Firm games left are ones where the pressure is on us. We deserve that because we didn't deal with set plays well today. Normally we defend well but against Dundee United we gave away two bad goals. Those little bits of inconsistency have plagued us in games and that has been costly for us."

The Rangers return to action next Saturday against the Hamilton Accies.

Rangers v Hearts preview

Rangers face Hearts later today at Tynecastle with the Gers needing to maintain pace with Celtic who have a solid four point lead. With Celtic nearly perfect on league level, Walter Smith's club cannot afford to drop points but Hearts are a particularly challenging squad and looking to enact revenge for their 2-0 loss to the Gers at Ibrox in the second week of the campaign. Hearts are however a particularly challenging squad at home and have won four straight since dropping to Celtic at the start of November. The Rangers defeated Hearts 2-0 at Ibrox in the second match of the season in a very close match.

On the injury front Hearts will be boosted with the return of Laryea Kingston and Deividas Česnauskis but missing Mike Tullberg and Saulius Mikoliūnas to injury with Michael Stewart in the sin-bin. The Rangers have Saša Papac and Madjid Bougherra back but still are without Steven Davis and Kenny Miller.

I will report on the match as it concludes.