Hearts 1-0 Rangers: Supporters beginning to believe

Published on Tuesday 18 January 2011 09:19

THE roar at full-time told its own story. Tynecastle's stands vibrated amid widespread euphoria at the end of a monumental day for Hearts' title aspirations.

Seldom can the decibel level have risen so sharply in Gorgie than when referee Mike Tumilty's final whistle sounded. If anyone doubted Hearts' capability to challenge the Old Firm, Saturday firmly answered their questions.

Not that this was a virtuoso performance. In fact, in terms of chances created, Rangers were by some distance the better team, particularly in a thoroughly one-sided first period. However, as acknowledged by the Hearts manager Jim Jefferies and goalscorer Ryan Stevenson, the ability to scratch out results while underperforming is the mark of top teams.

It required all the expertise of Marian Kello to preserve the goalless scoreline as the visitors dominated the opening 45 minutes. Their five-man midfield overwhelmed the three-man Hearts engine room, creating numerous chances for the likes of Kyle Lafferty, Steven Naismith and Jamie Ness. Kello, though, was immense and repelled everything that came his way.

Hearts asserted themselves with more authority in the second half and fashioned a vital breakthrough 11 minutes from time. Interchanging passes with Lee Wallace down the left, Rudi Skacel angled into the penalty area and appeared to be impeded by Ness. The referee dismissed the claims and allowed play to continue as the ball landed back at Wallace's feet. His low cross was tamely struck by Stephen Elliott and Stevenson was on hand to prod the ball into the Rangers net, sparking bedlam inside Tynecastle.

The joviality lasted right till the end, with Hearts now two points off second place in the SPL and seven behind league leaders Celtic. Rangers manager Walter Smith opined that his team's performance was the finest they have delivered at Tynecastle during his second tenure at Ibrox, but ultimately it counted for nothing.

Stevenson's first goal at Tynecastle was a personal landmark and simultaneously laid down a marker for Hearts to push for the top of the SPL.

"We have confidence in each other. We feel we can beat every team in this league," said the midfielder. "Rangers had us under the cosh for most of the game and played very well. Marian had a lot of great saves.

"It gives us confidence that after Rangers battering us we can still get the three points. That's the sign of a good team. Good teams manage to grind out results and doing it against Rangers is a real boost for us.

"The manager said to take it with a pinch of salt that everybody was hyping the game up. All the boys are in it together. We don't have people pulling in separate directions. It's great we are making headlines but the manager won't let us get carried away. We'll see where we are after Wednesday night."

Hearts' next assignment is the midweek journey to Celtic Park for another examination of their title credentials.

"Wednesday is now massive. Going to Ibrox the following week, it's going to be a massive week for us. We'll prepare properly and go to Parkhead full of confidence but we know it's going to be difficult. After this result, Neil Lennon will be telling his players that Hearts have confidence and he'll have his players fired up."

Stevenson was deployed in attack for Hearts to compensate for Kevin Kyle's absence through injury. He reverted to midfield early in the second period, yet appeared like a predatory striker inside the six-yard area to convert the winner. "Obviously it's nice to get off the mark at Tynecastle," he continued. "It had been playing on my mind that I hadn't scored here as all my goals came away from home, so it's nice to get a tap-in.

"The manager asked me to play up front and I haven't been playing as much as I want to recently. I'm happy to be playing. I just went up front to make a nuisance of myself. I'd played up there pre-season, the manager just wanted me to put myself up against the two Rangers centre-backs. That's what I tried to do, make it as hard as possible for them. The manager knows I can play up there, I'll do a shift and I'm happy to be playing.

"We've got belief and we believe in the squad we've got. We know how good we can be.

"To sustain it over the full campaign is going to be a massive ask. Rangers and Celtic have done it for years and years.

"We can grind out results and now we go to Parkhead on Wednesday. People say that's us in the title race but there's a long way to go. We still have to play Celtic and Rangers and if we come through that and we're still in touch then we can look at it and say we have a chance."

Jefferies concurred with the notion that getting carried away could be dangerous for Hearts. "We've done our best to play the hype down with everyone saying we could put in a challenge," said the manager.

"I told the players Rangers would start well. I knew if we weren't up to it they would cause problems. If it hadn't been for the goalkeeper in the first 20 minutes we could easily have been behind. There were two or three fantastic saves from Marian.

"If a team plays like Rangers did it's not easy to get in to the game. I had to pick them up at half-time and say 'they've given it a right good shot and it's still 0-0'. It was going to be a tight game and once we changed to a tight four in midfield and put another forward on it helped. Rangers started the second half well but didn't get many chances.

"It was a result for spirit and determination. Somewhere down the line you will always get a chance in games. Lee Wallace was outstanding and came strong at the end to carve out a chance, which we took. I'm much happier with the second-half performance because we didn't allow Rangers too many chances. It's a good result for us but it's a good result for the league. We weren't allowed to play well but when you can't play well you dig in and that togetherness helped us beat a very good team."

Despite the defeat, Smith sees the merit in having three teams challenging for the championship.

"It's not often we've come here and played as well as we did do so it's frustrating when you dominate a game and end up losing it," he said. "With the run of form Hearts are on I felt they were always going to be challengers. I don't see any sign that they will get weaker as the season goes on.

"Hearts are steady enough. They don't lose a lot of goals and they can go to Glasgow and win. There's a lot of football to be played. While Scottish football is consumed by the size of leagues, you don't need a big league if you have a level of competition.

"It makes you realise Hearts have a toughness about them and I think that can only be good for Scottish football."