Daniel Lewis

Thu 7 December 2023 9:10, UK

Presenter Peter Martin slammed the “dreadful” and “terrible” standards of football in the first half of the Scottish Premiership match between Hearts and Rangers.

Abdallah Sima gave the Gers a half-time lead at Tynecastle in Wednesday’s (6 December) contest through the only real moment of quality in the opening 45 minutes.

Both sets of players constantly gave the ball away, but Rangers did create more once they had taken the lead arguably against the run of play in Edinburgh.

Martin took to Twitter [6 December] during the match to post: “Terrible first half at Tynecastle.

“Stray passes from both sides. Dreadful football and one positive for the away side is Sima’s scoring run.”

Gers find a way

Martin was not wrong, in fairness – it was a low-quality first half at Tynecastle, albeit one in which Rangers still did enough to edge in front.

This is not the first time the broadcaster has taken aim at the Gers of late, having also labelled their 1-1 draw with Aberdeen on 26 November “dreadful”.

Ultimately, winning games is all that matters and Rangers have done enough of that since Philippe Clement took charge two months ago.

There have been more than a fair share of underwhelming halves of football across those games, which even the most ardent of Gers fan will admit to.

Rangers have now scored in 13 of their past 14 league matches – the exception being in the loss to Celtic – even if they have not always been at their free-flowing best in those games.

If his side can continue grinding out wins – or a single point at times – then Clement will not care one bit.

In other Rangers news, Neil Lennon has made a “massive” Gers claim with regards to their title battle with Celtic.