‘Spineless’ club will be desperate for Rangers and Celtic development – BBC pundit
Ryan Stevenson expects former club Hearts will be eager to kill Rangers’ Scottish Premiership title dreams after their “spineless” Scottish Cup loss.
Rangers saw off Hearts 2-0 at Hampden Park in Sunday’s (21 April) semi-final – the fifth time they have come out on top in the fixture this season in all competitions.
Hearts have one more crack at the Gers in what could be a huge fixture at Tynecastle on the final day of the campaign, as the title battle with Celtic hopefully goes down to the wire.
Writing in his column for the Daily Record’s online version [25 April], BBC Sport pundit Stevenson said: “Five cracks at Rangers this season and five defeats is horrendous form by anyone’s standards – made all the more baffling by the fact Hearts have beaten every other top flight side including Celtic home and away.
“Sunday’s spineless Scottish Cup semi final performance against Philippe Clement’s side was maybe the most frustrating of all. We’ll come to that in a minute. But if I was in that Hearts team then I’d be praying the title fight between Rangers and Celtic goes down to that final day on May 18.
“I’d be hoping Rangers are still in with a chance of winning it in Gorgie so that I could go out and dump them in a game that really meant something. To be brutally honest, even that would be too little too late. But at least it would prove to everyone, not least the Hearts players themselves, that they can beat Rangers.”
Rangers and Celtic title battle could go the distance
Rangers really have got Hearts’ number this season, with last weekend’s cup win hardly vintage but still very well earned given the disappointing recent run of form.
There is every possibility the title race could go down to the wire. If that is to happen, Philippe Clement’s men will almost certainly now have to win away at Celtic.
If they managed that, and win every other game leading into the final round of fixtures, it would be truly heartbreaking to then miss out on the final day.
Hearts’ players may well have extra motivation to prove they are capable of beating the Gers, but that was surely also the case in this most recent encounter.
Before any thoughts can turn to a possible final-day shootout, though, Rangers just need to focus on beating St Mirren next weekend and then take it game by game from there.
In other Rangers news, the Scottish FA has been asked to intervene and change the kick-off time of a Gers fixture next month.
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