How Hearts and Rangers paid fitting tribute and the own goal anti-hero who outdone Jamie McCart

We pick out a couple of ‘extras’ from Rangers’ 3-1 victory over Hearts at Tynecastle...

A minute's applause for former Hearts goalkeeper Gordon Marshall prior to the match against Rangers at Tynecastle Park. (Photo by Mark Scates / SNS Group) | SNS Group

Fitting tribute to a great

While it seemed fitting on a day when former Hearts goalkeeper great Gordon Marshall Senior was remembered that a goalie should catch the eye, it probably wasn’t the visiting one most at Tynecastle wished to see excel.

Nevertheless, Jack Butland’s performance for Rangers kept his side in the game and underlined why goalkeepers are worth their weight in gold. Craig Gordon was not too shabby at the other end either as he continues to shine in his 40s.

Still, Marshall is out on his own when it comes to honours. With two Scottish league titles at Hearts as well as three League Cups, he might never be eclipsed – in the 1957-58 title success, he conceded just 29 goals in 34 games. No wonder Tynecastle provided such a rousing tribute before kick-off in Sunday’s Premiership encounter between Hearts and Rangers as Marshall, who died earlier this month at the age of 85, was saluted. He also won a Second Division championship medal with Newcastle United as well as making a successful switch to Hibs later in his career. He ended up providing sterling service to Arbroath in the last chapter of a magnificent career.

“A moment’s applause,” the Tynecastle Tannoy man invited those present to participate in in recognition of a club hero. In reality, it must have been well over a minute – maybe even two - of sustained clapping, with the Rangers fans joining in as heartily as anyone, before referee John Beaton remembered we had a game to be getting on with and called a halt. Gordon Marshall Junior, a first-rate goalkeeper himself for a variety of clubs, was present at Tynecastle as a guest, which made it seem extra special. Well played, everyone.

Hearts' Jamie McCart scores an own goal to make it 1-0 to Rangers. (Photo by Mark Scates / SNS Group) | SNS Group

Own goal anti-hero

Putting the ball into your own net must be considered a hazard of the job as a defender. So no one, least of all manager Neil Critchley, was pinning any blame on Jamie McCart, who scored not one but two own goals in his side’s 3-1 defeat to Rangers at Tynecastle. “The first goal obviously just hits him as he's recovering to the goal,” Critchley reflected later. “And then the third goal, he's actually back there and doesn't quite get enough on it to take it away from (Cyriel) Dessers and kick it out for a corner.”

The ball instead dribbled into the corner of Craig Gordon’s goal. The Hearts goalkeeper also reacted well in the first half to stop a deflection off McCart landing in the home goal, which would have been the middle goal of an unfortunate hat-trick.

Two own goals from the same player are of course notable enough and throws up a few questions, including, with McCart having got off the mark for Hearts last month against Kilmarnock, does this now mean he’s on minus one in terms of goals for his new club? And have there been many other instances of a player scoring more than one own goal in Scottish football?

I can remember Roddy Manley scoring two own goals for Falkirk against Dundee in a 6-0 win for the visitors at Brockville in 1987 and the away fans willing him on to get a hat-trick. An own goal hat-trick really is the rarest of things, although New Zealand women’s defender Meikayla Moore raised the bar further when scoring the perfect hat-trick of own goals – left foot, right foot, header – in the first half of the SheBelieves Cup against the United States in 2002. She was subbed off at half time, perhaps not surprisingly. Kudos to the Hearts Tannoy man Graeme Easton, by the way, for at least sparing McCart’s blushes further and electing not to announce the first goal, having concluded that if you can’t say anything nice, then don’t say anything at all.