Hearts-Rangers reaction: Half-time goalies' gesture spoke volumes; Rangers manager's ticket dig

Hearts’ winning run in the league came to a grinding halt against Rangers at Tynecastle. As much was of interest off the field as on it.

Hearts goalkeeper Craig Gordon returns to the squad for Wednesday's 1-0 defeat by Rangers. He watched from the bench on his return to the first-team pool after nearly a year out with a broken leg (Photo by Ross Parker / SNS Group)

Alan Pattullo reflects on a night when the visitors maintained their unbeaten run under new manager Philippe Clement. It now stands at 11 games. Hearts, meanwhile, welcomed back two favourites after nearly a year out with injury. One in particular generated headlines.

Important if awkward night for Gordon as goalies’ union given test

Craig Gordon was faced with a tricky conundrum on Wednesday night when Rangers faced Hearts at Tynecastle and he returned to the first-team squad for the first time in 340 days. Namely, how can a 6ft 4in goalie remain relatively unobtrusive?

It proves especially difficult if you are wearing a training top apparently modelled on the design for a fruit salad sweet wrapper. Gordon is a good man, he would have been acutely aware of the reaction his presence would have at Tynecastle on the day of his long-awaited return.

A fully paid-up member of the goalies’ union, he will also have been fully cognisant of the potential effect on Zander Clark, the man currently in possession of the goalie jersey at Tynecastle. It would either inspire him or else turn his big pal into a big bag of nerves.

In the event, his return seemed to have both effects. Clark dropped the ball at Danilo’s feet and was criticised for coming too far off his line for Rangers’ winner, which Abdallah Sima slipped past him after 34 minutes.

But, to his credit, he made some superb stops, including with his foot from Danilo in the first half, and then, with Sima straight through with ten minutes left, he made a fine block. He wasn’t to know about the offside call, with Rangers manager Philippe Clement later making the point - while praising Clark - that he didn’t think it was the right call. So the save was significant in that it kept Hearts in the game. Who knows what might have happened had Willie Collum played more than a miserly three minutes added time.

Gordon sought out Clark out as the players made their way down the tunnel at half-time. He bumped his friend and rival’s fist in recognition of the worth of that Danilo stop. It was a rare sighting of Gordon. Unlike Craig Halkett, who was also returning from injury after the same amount of time, he did not choose to go for a warm-up on the trackside during the game.

Ok, it’s maybe not necessary for a sub goalie to warm-up, but it did seem like a conscious decision on Gordon’s part. He knew the acclaim he would receive and that would not be fair on Clark, who was trying to remain focused on keeping Rangers out.

Gordon ducked his head under the roof of the dugout when the teams came out and we did not see him again until he headed down the tunnel at half-time, only waiting briefly to make that 'respect' gesture towards Clark. He disappeared quickly at the end too.

He could hardly avoid warming up before the match. Indeed, everywhere you looked there seemed to be a Scotland goalie going through his pre-match routine. Clark and Gordon in the Hearts half. As for Rangers, they had Robby McCrorie and slightly forgotten former Scotland – and Hearts – goalkeeper Jon McLaughlin, who’s now No.3 at Ibrox.

But most people’s eyes were on Gordon as he leaped about in glorious defiance of that leg break nearly a year ago. And that made it awkward for the returning 40-year-old, who is alert to the extra pressure being placed on Clark.

Many are just waiting for the moment when the current No. 1 makes a major mistake and give manager Steven Naismith an excuse to bring Gordon back in.

This would suit many people, Steve Clarke perhaps among them. Although the Scotland manager wins whatever happens. If Clark keeps his place, it means he is performing well enough to keep a club legend out of the team, which surely merits being on the plane to Germany.

Even the official match programme was at it. While noting Clark had recorded his seventh league shut out of the season against Kilmarnock at the weekend, a number only exceeded by Rangers ‘keeper Jack Butland, the author of the statistics’ page also mentioned that Gordon was nearing a return from injury, which means “some tough decisions on who starts in goal for us when both are fit”.

It is going to be a fascinating duel. But the mutual respect that clearly exists between the pair of protagonists means it will be a hard but fair fight for the gloves. And who knows? Perhaps Clarke will still take both to Germany. Rangers No 2 McCrorie has proved that lack of first-team action is not necessarily a hindrance to inclusion in a Scotland squad, although more stringent eligibility standards might need to be met at a major finals.

Away tickets remains an issue

Rangers manager Philippe Clement could not resist a dig at the ticketing arrangements at Tynecastle for away fans these days.

He was probably puzzled by the sight of 600 or so Rangers fans squeezed into the corner of the Roseburn stand while a large area of empty seats, over which had been draped a canopy, was employed as a ‘no-man’s land’ separating these away fans from the Hearts supporters, who were in an area that was not even completely full.

“We don’t get too many tickets here either so we had fewer fans than normal, but the ones here made a lot of noise,” he said, apropros of nothing, and having already noted that Tynecastle was a “tough place with fantastic supporters”.

He’s on a quick learning curve and has passed – or at least not failed – all of the toughest tests so far. Having earned a dramatic late point at Pittodrie with a late penalty, he took this first visit to Gorgie in his stride. Hearts’ ploy of restricting tickets for away fans has not brought too much joy in home games so far this season against the Old Firm.

They’ve conceded five and scored just once on two such occasions. Fans will grumble that they have barely laid a glove on Celtic and Rangers in these games, although it was a closer run thing on Wednesday. But it's clear the messy and unsatisfying segregation arrangements in the away stand are not helping the matchday atmosphere. One might even propose that it was better when the entire stand was given over to visiting supporters, as used to be the case when the Old Firm were in town and still happens when Hibs visit.