Rangers deflate Hearts with second half blitz

Hearts 0

It could have been a far more painful score for the home side but for Roddy McKenzie’s fine form throughout the game. The result also means there will be just a single point separating champions Celtic, who beat Motherwell, and challengers Rangers when the two meet at Ibrox next Saturday for the second Old Firm derby of the season.

Ricksen opened the scoring for Rangers in the 52nd minute and the killer blows were not long in coming. The first came from the penalty spot from Ferguson when Mols was barged over by Austin McCann as he moved to meet a de Boer cross from the left. A couple of minutes later Ricksen made sure with a firm header from an Arveladze cross. Hughes had the final say in stoppage-time.

Rangers were 1-0 up when Maybury was shown his second yellow of the game just before the hour mark and the visitors went on to exploit that advantage to the full.

Levein said: ‘‘The game changed with the sending off. I think Neil has done a great job in fooling Hugh Dallas. I’m not just talking about the ordering off incident. I feel that on a number of occasions fouls were given when Alan Maybury was doing a brilliant job.

‘‘What happened was that the referee made a rod for his own back. He had to make a decision like that eventually.

Levein also revealed he would not fine the Irishman for his dismissal.

He said: ‘‘I asked him to get tight on Neil McCann and make sure he was not facing goal. There’s no chance I will be fining him. I thought he had a smashing game today.

‘‘And to be honest, by the letter of the law for retaliation Neil McCann shouldn’t have been on the park anyway. Right in front of the dugout he has thrown an elbow. Again, that was inconsistency.

‘‘I was incensed. Being the smaller team of the two, it was easy to give decisions against us and it happened all over the park.’’

McLeish defended Dallas and insisted Maybury’s red card had been deserved. He said: ‘‘Maybury was over-zealous today. He made four or five late challenges on McCann.

‘‘I don’t think he was dirty but with the amount of fouls he had, the ref had no alternative. Neil was close to a red card as well. He was treading on thin ice as well.

‘‘He retaliated and was booked for that. I knew he was walking a tightrope and I said so at half-time and I thought he showed great discipline in the second half.’’

HEARTS: McKenzie, Maybury, McKenna, Webster, McCann, Queifio (Kirk 71), MacFarlane, Severin, Stamp (Simmons 62), Valois, de Vries (Wales 71).

RANGERS: Klos, Muscat, Moore, Amoruso (Malcolm 83), Numan, Ricksen, Arteta (Hughes 40), Ferguson, Arveladze, de Boer, McCann (Mols 70).

Referee: Hugh Dallas

(Scotland).