Rangers administration: Hearts coach takes no pleasure in Ibrox pain

Published on Saturday 18 February 2012 00:00

HEARTS manager Paulo Sergio said yesterday that he had taken no pleasure from Rangers’ being docked ten points as a result of going into administration.

The penalty has made it likelier that Motherwell and Hearts, who meet at Fir Park today, could mount a challenge for second place. But Sergio said that, whatever happened over the rest of this season, in the longer term the important thing for the game as a whole was a Rangers recovery.

“I believe Scottish football needs a strong Rangers,” the Portuguese manager said yesterday. “In football, as in life, sometimes people are in trouble, but I believe a big institution like Rangers will solve their problems.

“I’m not the kind of guy who is happy because there are problems in the houses of the others. I can’t be happy because of that. When I had big problems I had the same face: I was fighting. And I believe Ally McCoist, the Rangers supporters and the board will do the same.

“I’m not focused on what is happening at Rangers and how we can benefit. I would like to be closer to Rangers in the league – not because they’ve lost ten points but because we have ten points more than we have. I’m not happy because of the problems of the others.”

Motherwell are nine points behind Rangers with a game in hand, while Hearts are six adrift of today’s opponents. Sergio accepted that, with such a lead over the third and fourth-placed teams, Rangers still had their destiny in their own hands, on the pitch at least.

“Can someone else get second place? I don’t know,” he said. “Motherwell is a very good team. They have been showing a lot of consistency. I don’t know how it will affect Rangers players, or if it won’t. It’s up to them to do their job.”

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