Maroon memories: A magic result that only Juve could beat

HOW often does the opportunity present itself to make a favourable comparison between Hearts and Juventus?

Here's one. Rangers were given the most comprehensive beating they had all season at Ibrox apart from the night when Alessandro del Piero went to Govan with Gianluca Vialli and the boys for company in the UEFA Champions League, and won 4-0.

Jim Jefferies' side, on the rebound from a late defeat against Celtic just four days before in which signs of fatigue had been evident by the final whistle, were initially left without John Robertson and Gary Mackay, who were both on the bench.

There was a symbolic passing on of the flame, though, when the new generation of Hearts' brightest talents, led by Allan Johnston and Gary Locke, helped construct the most remarkable result of the season.

Robertson and Mackay had, in 1988, played in the last Hearts side to win a league match at Ibrox, but would have been the first to admit they were not missed before coming on as belated substitutes.

Johnston became the first player to score a hat-trick against Rangers since 1985 when John Brown performed the feat at Dens Park for Dundee. Hearts became the first team to beat Rangers by three clear goals on their own ground for three years.

Walter Smith's obligation to keep calm in the face of any panic that may have settled on the more excitable element within his team's support extended to issuing a denial that the close nature of the league's finish had induced a state of nervous anxiety within Ibrox.

Entering the final third of the league programme while only one point in front of Celtic did not equate with the imminent destruction of Rangers' monopoly of the championship so far as he was concerned.

"Games are not easily won in the Premier League," he said, in spite of Hearts' win having broken a sequence of 19 matches without defeat for Rangers.

"We lost this one because we struggled to create goalscoring chances and became frustrated, which led to us giving goals away on the break."

Andy Goram had gone through 801 minutes without conceding a goal before Hearts ran riot and Jim Jefferies was only being realistic later when he said that Rangers got off lightly in the end.Johnston's pace was evident from the time when he stole in front of David Robertson to give Hearts an early lead, but the way in which he deceived Goram on two other occasions to score vouched for him being something better than just quick off his mark.

Jefferies said: "If we can win 3-0 at Ibrox, there is no reason why a team running into form in time for the start of the Scottish Cup can't go all the way to the final of that competition."

There was a feeling that, when Hearts had lost to Airdrie in the semi-final of Scottish Cup the previous season, the club had lost the best chance it was likely to get of ending a 33-year separation from a major trophy.