Who can stop Rangers?
No let-up from Walter Smith’s men
On one hand, losing goals and giving the opposition the lead is not a trait that should be welcomed in a football side. Giving yourself the uphill task of coming from behind to grab a victory is not on the wish list of any manager….but for a fan, a turnaround victory can be the most exhilarating way to spend your weekend.
With the Pittodrie victory last Sunday and today’s last gasp win at Tynecastle, sandwiching a victory in the Champions League, the Rangers faithful have been through every emotion known to a fan. Its all worth it though and the chant of “that’s why we’re champions” which reverberated around Tynecastle after Steven Naismith’s winner will have Rangers fans feeling on top of the world.
Celtic two goal victory over Hamilton may see Rangers knocked back into second place but after victories like todays, that sort of thing doesn’t matter. After 7 games, the exact placing of the SPL table is not a major issue and Rangers fans will just be delighted they continued their winning run.
After the international break, a home game against Motherwell sees Rangers having an excellent opportunity to make it 8 wins out of 8. With Celtic at Tannadice on the same weekend, there is a possibility that Rangers can go to Parkhead with a lead in the league.
The amount of goals that Rangers are losing will be a concern for Walter Smith with Madjid Bougherra looking not too clever when Rudi Skacel bundled Hearts into a lead. The absence of Lee McCulloch and the protective barrier he provides for Rangers was a big loss but he should be back in the side after the international break.
From there on, aside from a few Kevin Kyle misses, Rangers were the dominant team and were rewarded with an equaliser from Kyle Lafferty’s free-kick. With ten minutes plus injury time to go, there were expectations that Rangers would again triumph…but they left it so late to clinch it.
Most fans probably felt the game was going to drizzle out to be a 1-1 draw but tell that to Steven Naismith. Hearts boss Jim Jefferies was fulsome in his praise of the former Kilmarnock player before the game and he was rewarded with a strike that took a point from his team.
Depending on which team you support or how optimistic / pessimistic you are, the ability to win late can be down to luck or determination. Happening once can be lucky, when you manage it twice in the space of a week; it’s likely that there is so much more to it than that.
Determination and the ability to never give up is indeed the mark of the champions. There is such a long way to go this season and there will be many more twists to come but for now, Rangers fans should be satisfied with a great spell.
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Great article, though some would definitley disagree. That aside, if Gers could only eliminate the silly silly errors that ultimately results in goals for the opposition, there WOULD be no stopping them. They started the game today, excellently. Then the error then the goal, which in turn left them chasing the game and Hearts defending for their lives and their keeper was immense. I was sitting quietly watching, rueing all the missed opportunties. Then, the yelp of relief when Naisy popped up! Well done that man.
Cheers Kenny.
The thing is – the Rangers management team will know that they need to tighten up at the back – things have worked out so far….there will likely come games when Rangers struggle to grab the goal so the defence needs to bail them out.
And yea, Rangers did actually start very well with Skacel’s goal coming against the run of play.
Good work again Ed!
Defence was a shambles yesterday, Papac needs a rocket, Weir getting caught out now,Whittaker????
Saying that we could have scored7x!
Condsidering our run of games, 4 away including Hibs, Hearts and Aberden, and given SPL’s “Computer generated” 5 away games after CL games, 4 still to come, we have done well to be where we are
Will be interesting to see league after Celtic have been to said grounds!!
What a relief to score the winner in ‘Celtic time’ a trait long associated with our rivals and there’s no better feeling as you mention in your article. There’s no doubt that Rangers are a tight unit at the moment, we could have lost points now against Hamilton, Aberdeen and now Hearts. The way in which they have battled to get out those situations has been remarkable.
Hopefully the silly errors in defence will be worked on and we stop being so slack in the SPL, we are going to lose points if don’t start defending better and giving teams a goal of a start. Scooter mentioned above, Tynecastle, Pittodrie, Easter Road and indeed New Douglas Park are all tough venues in the SPL, to come away with victories from them all is a great achievement, especially the last two games after the Champions League involvement, normally a graveyard in recent seasons for Rangers.
Celtic are doing their bit as well and have surprised me with their start to the season, looks like a real bitter battle to be top dogs this season!