McLeish relishes beating Hearts

Patrick Glenn at Ibrox
Sunday December 18, 2005
The Observer

While Alex McLeish is enjoying the fruits of Rangers' mini-recovery, Vladimir Romanov may be releasing the safety catch and lubricating the firing mechanism. Hearts' notoriously impatient owner will have been as disenchanted as any of the club's supporters by the team's decline since Graham Rix became head coach.

Long before substitute Saulius Mikoliunas was sent off for a foul on Barry Ferguson in the 86th minute, the Edinburgh team had looked an insult to the team who, under George Burley, had impressed as title contenders. Burley was sacked by Romanov after a record-breaking opening to the campaign.

The goal from Peter Lovenkrands - the resurgent Denmark striker's sixth in his past four matches - was the very least they deserved. Hearts appear to have lost much of the ebullience that distinguished their play in the early weeks of the season, apparently transformed from aggressive predators into stereotypes of cautiousness.

That it should take them until the fourteenth minute to get the ball in Rangers' penalty area - and that from a throw-in - was an indicator of the lack of the kind of thrusting ambition that had yielded victories in each of their first eight matches and taken them to the top of the Premierleague.

The visiting team's willingness to play a containing game amounted to an invitation to Rangers to take the bulk of the possession and even if the champions spent a long time demonstrating an ignorance of how best to exploit it, they had looked much likelier than Hearts to open the scoring before Lovenkrands gave them the lead.

The home team's pressure could hardly be called insistent, or particularly troubling, but it was clear that they were more intent than their opponents on making a strenuous effort to try to win the match.

Indeed, they would have been ahead earlier but for an aberration from their towering defender Marvin Andrews. After a corner on the left, the ball came out to Lovenkrands on the right of the area and his chip found Andrews at the far post, virtually on the goalline. In attempting to stab the ball into the net, however, the Trinidadian's foot seemed to pass under the ball, slicing it into the air and allowing Craig Gordon to make a catch he could not have imagined an instant before.

Chris Burke also perpetrated a bad miss when he came in from the right, past Jamie McAllister, to reach a perfectly judged pass from Barry Ferguson and, with only Gordon to beat, headed the ball straight at the goalkeeper.

During an entire first half of pedestrian play in midfield up front by Hearts, it was hardly surprising that their only scoring chance should come from a set piece. Paul Hartley's free-kick from the left found Steven Pressley on the six-yard line, but the defender's header was untidy, sending the ball over the crossbar.

Hearts' shocking lack of movement, with or without the ball, was clearly an encouragement to Rangers, as if they had been convinced from quite early in the game that there would be little or no threat to their own goal, despite one or two loose passes in dangerous areas from Andrews.

In response, the home team appeared twice as quick in every area of the field, save for the occasional moment when the side from Tynecastle managed to play the ball towards the Rangers penalty area, but they rarely managed to put themselves inside the white lines, with the ball, and trouble Ronald Waterreus.

Rangers themselves cannot be said to have been especially impressive and it was not difficult to hypothesise that, against more ambitious opponents, they might have struggled. As it was, they should have scored a second when Burke ended a promising run down the right with a low cross to Lovenkrands, but the Dane rushed a right-foot shot over the bar.

Lovenkrands was even more culpable soon after, when another well-judged cross from Burke gave him a free header from about 10 yards. Once again, he sent the ball too high.

Rix's decision to remove Edgaras Jankauskas and Deividas Cesnauskis and replace them with Calum Elliot and Mikoliunas respectively brought marginally more liveliness to Hearts' endeavours, but not enough to dispel the impression that they have deteriorated alarmingly.

Man of the match: Barry Ferguson - an error-free performance.

Taken from the Guardian/Observer