'Serial killers get better publicity than Diouf' says Walter Smith

The Senegalese forward, secured on loan from Blackburn Rovers until the end of the season, contributed to a 1-0 win over Hearts at Ibrox which moved Rangers to within five points of Celtic at the top of the SPL with two games in hand.

Diouf was called into action sooner than Smith had planned, appearing as a 21st minute substitute for Lee McCulloch who sustained a knee injury which is almost certain to rule him out of Sunday's Scottish Cup fifth round tie against Celtic at Ibrox.

The Rangers manager expressed his satisfaction at the way Diouf conducted himself in a match which saw him on the end of several robust challenges from Hearts players. While fortunate to escape a booking himself for a retaliatory foul on Marius Zaliukas, the 30-year-old was more often on the receiving end. Ian Black, whose foul on Nikica Jelavic at Tynecastle last October saw the Rangers striker sidelined for three months with an ankle injury, perpetrated the most severe challenge on Diouf last night to become one of six Hearts players booked by referee Brian Winter.

Smith delivered a withering assessment of Black, who was substituted at half-time by Hearts manager Jim Jefferies to remove the possibility of him being sent off, and suggested the headlines which have greeted Diouf to Scotland have lacked perspective.

"Overall, I was pleased with the way he played, seeing as serial killers get better publicity than he did," said Smith.

"It was never going to be easy for him after that. He hasn't played for a few weeks and we had to pitch him in sooner than we had expected. We had planned to introduce him some time in the second half. He showed he wanted to be involved and he handled it well overall.

"In terms of getting attention (from the opposition), he's going to have to continue handling that aspect of things well.

"The foul (by Black) was the same as the tackle which put Jelavic out for three months. He also got a yellow card for the challenge on Jelavic, so that seems to be what happens. I've got no problems with that."

The likely loss of McCulloch will be regarded as a serious blow by Smith who sets considerable store by the holding midfield role carried out by the Scotland international.

"Lee is very doubtful for Sunday," said Smith. "It upset the balance of our team tonight when he went off. We lost stability in the middle of the park and didn't have as fluent possession of the ball as beforehand."

Kyle Lafferty scored the only goal of the match after four minutes, handing Rangers a nervy but valuable victory. "It was always going to be an awkward game for us," said Smith. "After losing heavily at Celtic last week, Hearts were always going to make sure they didn't suffer the same fate here."

Despite a defeat which leaves them 10 points behind SPL leaders Celtic, Hearts manager Jim Jefferies was satisfied with a performance which was far more competitive than his team had produced in losing 4-0 at Parkhead the previous Wednesday.

"The night started badly for us," said Jefferies, "with David Obua getting injured during the warm-up and then us losing an early goal. But our recovery was great and the players didn't capitulate like they did last week.

"Ian Black had a little bit of a knock, but I would have considered taking him off at half-time anyway because one more foul, even an accidental one, would have got him sent off.

"He was targeted a lot by the crowd and he had a knock as well so it was the right thing to do."

"I didn't have a problem with any of the bookings we picked up in the game, just the fact that it was only players from our team who got booked."

Hearts suffered a 4-0 defeat to Celtic last week and Jefferies added: "It was better than last Wednesday. We had a makeshift squad tonight but they gave us everything and we didn't capitulate like last week.

"We can't complain about the efforts of the players, although you could see we had key players missing.

"We've taken nine points from our last five games, three of them against the Old Firm, which isn't a disaster.

"We've got the Old Firm out of the way for a while and the target now is to try and make sure of third place before the split."

Jefferies is hopeful of signing Andy Webster following the defender's release from Rangers earlier this week.

"We had a good meeting with him," said Jefferies. "He's got some decent offers from elsewhere, but he knows Hearts well and seems to be keen. We've done all we can, now we have to wait and see if his agent and our people can agree a deal."

Hibernian, Aberdeen and Dundee United are also interested in signing the centre-back, who left Hearts in 2006 after a contract disagreement with club owner Vladimir Romanov.

He spent last season on loan at Tannadice and earned a Scottish Cup winners' medal.