Hearts win in another SPL quality over quantity affair
Many chances but Jambos only needed one
Making chances and not taking them has been the curse of many teams ambitions in football and so it once again proved at Tynecastle yesterday. For a large part of the past two seasons, Rangers have been ruthless with their chances, taking a strong percentage of their chances and winning games.
One of the reasons why Tony Mowbray was run out of town as Celtic boss was the fact that his team needed about ten chances to finally make a goal and that sort of ratio cannot do for a top side. Rangers can easily say they battered Hearts in the first half yesterday but without getting behind Kello in goals, the half-time score of 0-0 had to be a huge concern for all concerned at Rangers.
The second half started in the same manner with the blues bearing down on the Hearts goal but when you fail to score, eventually doubts will creep into the play and the opposition may start to think it is their day. Resolute defending, good goalkeeping, a touch of luck and never giving up ensured Hearts deserved an opportunity to stay in the match and when a chance to win it came along, they took it.
The Rangers defence was extremely culpable for the goal. Rangers had more than enough bodies back in the box for the goal in fact, they maybe had too many. Jamie Ness allowed his man to effortlessly drift past him which then saw two Rangers midfielders run towards the ball, which opened up space inside the box. Once the pass was made, Rangers two centre halfs charged out from their position, leaving two Hearts men free on the six yard line. When the ball worked its way through, Stevenson was left with the easiest chance of the day and amazingly, the home side were one up.
After Hearts took the lead, Rangers best chance of getting back into it came through a Jelavic shot which showed the class of the player. He was unlucky with the ball cannoning off the bar and bouncing back into play by a good distance (regardless of the desperate claims), the technique showed in getting the shot away was extremely impressive.
So, what does this do for the title race? At the moment, it changes nothing. If Rangers win their games in hand, they still go top of the league. Hearts are still in third and doubts still remain over their ability to maintain their form and push on.
However, the time when it comes to re-evaluate these opinions could be coming closer. On Wednesday night, Hearts visit Celtic Park and if they avoid defeat in that game, an outcome that should be well within Heart’s reach; you have to say that Hearts are well in this. Their form in their last 12 games outstrips Celtic and Rangers so if they can keep going to toe to toe with the big guns, it would only be patronising or arrogant to assume they will drop off.
The Jambos are more than capable of beating the rest of the SPL if they keep their attitude right and avoid injuries.
As for Rangers, they are entering a busy period with league, League Cup, Scottish Cup and European ties on the horizon.
Busy times and the Ibrox side needs to prove this was just an unlucky defeat against a team they are in the mix with.
Hearts will take comfort from having nothing but the league to focus on and the fact that the big Glasgow two will meet twice (at least) in February. Hearts have the opportunity to focus on the league and if they retain that focus, they could be involved to the death.
For now – a great win for Hearts but it is how both teams respond that will provide a better judge of the SPL situation.
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No mention of Skacel’s clear dive in the box before Hearts scored? Should’ve been a free kick and a yellow card for diving, it wasn’t the ref decided otherwise and then Hearts scored what was ultimately the winning goal. As I have said though, these decisions happen in a game and some go for you and some against. Perhaps the referee will openly appologise to the Rangers support ala Kenny Clark at Ibrox last year after the Maloney incident, perhaps Rangers might seek clarification from the SFA, more likely we’ll just move on and get on with the next game. See it’s that easy!
As for the game itself, how we never got the three points is a mystery, some of the best football we have played this season but failed when it came to scoring. You don’t take your chances then your more than likely to get punished and we did.
The Jambo’s are on some run, won 10 from their last 11 and drawn the other one, they play Celtic on Wednesday who still appear to be struggling at home to put teams away, they then come to Ibrox the following Wednesday. I still think they will do what they always do and bottle it though.
One thing is for sure, it’s going to be a tight league this year.
True but equally no mention of McCulloch’s dive or Davie Weir going vigilante in the final few moments and taking everyone out! The match wasn’t played in that bad a spirit, it could have been a lot worse but someone has to have a word with Steven Naismith. His claim for offside and then claiming the ball was over by the line by Jelavic was pretty scandalous – it’s one thing trying to influence the officials but that was barefaced cheek and lies.
Even Roger Hunt had the ball hitting some of the white line to try and justify his claims in 66!
A failure to take chances is the thing Quagmire – it is what did for Mowbray over the course of the season – under Mowbray, Celtic put in two very strong performances at Tynecastle and Tannadice, certainly better than some of the latter ones that Strachan’s team took but they missed loads of chances and then defensive slips saw them walk away with 0 out of 6 points.
Hearts run is fantastic and they will certainly pose problems at Celtic Park on Wednesday night.