JJ slams Lennon's suggestions of Hearts 'not trying' at Ibrox

Hearts boss Jim Jefferies has urged Celtic counterpart Neil Lennon to examine the performances of his own team before criticising others for jeopardising the Hoops' title hopes.

Jefferies responded angrily to Lennon's claims that recent opponents of Rangers, who lead Celtic by a point and could go four clear if they beat Dundee United tonight, had not exerted as much effort as would be expected.

Rangers cruised to a 4-0 win over Hearts at Ibrox on Saturday after overwhelming Motherwell 5-0 at Fir Park the previous week, a sequence of results that prompted Lennon to say: "What we're looking for is somebody to compete, to give Rangers a game as there's not been much evidence of that in their two previous games."

Jefferies responded vigorously to suggestions his players had not competed at Ibrox and thus handing the blue half of Glasgow the advantage in the race for the SPL championship. He pointed to Celtic's recent 3-2 defeat at Inverness as a factor Lennon should look at before laying the blame on rival teams.

"I have a lot of time for Neil Lennon and I respect him a lot as a manager but it's not in my team's nature not to give 100 per cent," said the Hearts manager.

"To accuse them of not trying is extremely unfair and disrespectful. I'm sure Motherwell feel the same. We competed as well as we could under the circumstances. I had nine players out through injury and suspension and the only fit players I had were involved.

"We were up against Rangers' strongest side and they were on fire. The reason their tails are up is because Celtic lost to Inverness.

"Rangers are fired up because Celtic got beaten. It's their own fault they lost at Inverness."

Lennon's fears that rival teams are smoothing the path for Rangers to claim their third successive SPL title are bound to have been heightened by the Hearts hierarchy's decision to withdraw captain Marius Zaliukas from the Jambos' first-team squad prior to the game at Ibrox.

That Zaliukas is likely to return for tomorrow night's crunch meeting against the Hoops at Tynecastle may only fuel Lennon's outlandish claims about the move.

Zaliukas was omitted at the behest of Vladimir Romanov, who gave the reason that the player was at risk of being sent off for a third time in three years by referee Iain Brines.

As Craig Thomson is set to officiate tomorrow's game in Gorgie, Zaliukas would be expected to return to Jefferies' line-up.