Hearts hammered at Ibrox as injuries mount

I doubt that many Hearts fans expected the team to take even a point today. 5 successive draws – plus some impressive recent Rangers wins – gave a pointer to how this match was likely to go. The absence of Messrs Zaliukas, Bouzid, Webster, Wallace, Kyle and Santana could only make things harder for the visitors.

Hearts seem to have played pretty well for the first quarter of the match – but conceded 3 goals in the 2nd quarter as Rangers stretched the visitors with accurate passing at high speed. Goals from Jelavic, Davis and Lafferty did the damage. The second-half belonged to the home side – and Hearts` task was made impossible when Eggert Jonsson was red-carded (rather harshly I thought) for a clumsy foul on Jelavic. Rangers wrapped up their win with a fourth goal when a series of desperate saves in Hearts 6-yard box ended with Ryan Stevenson unluckily deflecting a shot into his own net.

David Obua made a return to the team today, and apparently played very well, linking impressively with David Templeton in the first half. Unfortunately Templeton picked up a second-half injury, making him very doubtful for Wednesday – with Mrowiec following suit.

We now have to hope that Rangers don`t allow Dundee United to repeat their recent Ibrox win on Tuesday night, since Hearts will be hard pressed to take anything out of Wednesday`s match against Celtic at Tynecastle with so many players out injured. This brings to mind a similar situation from 1996 when 4 red cards at Ibrox left us struggling to field a defence to play Celtic at Tynecastle 4 days later in a League Cup tie – JJ recruited one Andy Thorn on emergency loan, and he was outstanding as Hearts managed a 1-0 win after extra time thanks to John Robertson.

This time, Darren Barr and/or Ryan McGowan will probably feature in central defence. Hopefully Scott Robinson will get a full game, with 1 or 2 youngsters possibly being promoted to the bench.

What`s clear though (once again) is the gulf which still exists between the Old Firm and the chasing pack, in terms of consistency and mentality over a full season.