Naismith plays down title talk despite nine-point cushion

The lead the champions have established at the top of the SPL has led many to presume that the title will be theirs for a fourth consecutive season come the spring, but Steven Naismith insisted that a lack of presumption was the key to their success.

“This early in the season you can’t think about the points,” said the midfielder, who opened the scoring after 21 minutes before Nikica Jelavic wrapped up Rangers’ 2-0 victory in the second half. “You’re just going into every game trying your best to get the win. We know how quickly it can be turned around. We dropped points at home last week when a lot of folk wouldn’t have predicted that.”

“We knew it was going to be difficult [at Tynecastle]. Celtic found that out before the international break. We knew if we had good defending that we would create chances, and it was about being clinical: two good chances and two goals.”

Rangers manager Ally McCoist said solidity in defence was matched by opportunism up front. “I thought we were very, very professional,” he said. “When you come to a place like Tynecastle the one thing they make you do is earn it, and we certainly earned it. We defended really well at times. I thought we switched off a couple of times, and maybe rode our luck when the keeper made a couple of very good saves. But we created chances as well, and scored two good goals.

“A lot of teams will come here and find it really difficult. It’s a really tough place to go, but the important thing is that when you come to places like this you respect that, and you work your socks off. And we did that today, and I don’t think anyone could grudge us the three points.”

While happy with the attitude of all of his players, McCoist was especially impressed by goalkeeper Allan McGregor’s “absolutely fantastic” double save from Hearts’ Ryan Stevenson, and by his two goalscorers – particularly Jelavic, who was suffering from a virus which had been expected to rule him out. “Even Saturday morning I didn’t think he had any chance at all,” the manager said. “But he showed great spirit, came to the hotel last night and we locked him away himself. Woke up in the morning and he felt he could certainly give us something from the bench, and did he not just do that?”

Reflecting on that home draw with St Mirren eight days previously, McCoist added that, though a setback at the time, it was an instructive one which had played its part in yesterday’s win. “It’s important that you look at the game, analyse it, and don’t start pressing unnecessary panic buttons that shouldn’t be pressed. That was never going to be the case: we had a wee chat about the game and a look at the goal we lost, and we wanted to do better next time. Next time was today and we did a lot better.”

McCoist plans to offer a trial shortly to 21-year-old forward Joe Sise, whose contract with relegated Swedish club Halmstads is about to end. The Rangers manager also hopes to open talks about a new contract with Kyle Lafferty, who cost the club £4 million when he joined from Burnley three years ago.

Hearts manager Paulo Sergio had a different take on the game from his Ibrox counterpart, arguing his team should have won, and lambasting his defence. As Hearts have issued a media ban as part of their row with the Scottish Football Association over referee Iain Brines, Sergio was quoted only on the club’s website and did not attend the post-match press conference.

“I don’t think this game should have been a draw,” Sergio said. “We should have won the game. We were better, but we made two mistakes, and when you play big teams they’ll punish you.

“Defensively, the first goal was too easy, and the second goal – I don’t need to say anything. Under-15 teams would not concede a goal like this. The striker scored a good goal, but we should not be allowing things like this.

“Their goalkeeper won them the points today. The result was unfair, but we need to score our chances.”