All-too familiar story for Hearts at Ibrox

Rangers 3 Heart of Midlothian 0

Ladbrokes Premiership, Wednesday 3^rd April
2019 – Ibrox

There was an air
of inevitably in the Govan area of Glasgow on Wednesday evening as Hearts
succumbed to Rangers with a performance that we’ve come to expect whenever a
Craig Levein side head to the west of Scotland.

Levein made a couple changes to the team that defeated Aberdeen at Tynecastle on Saturday with Oliver Bozanic and Marcus Godinho returning to the team with Uche Ikpeazu recovering from a head knock and Jake Mulraney dropped to the bench. The lack of width and the prospect of Craig Wighton ploughing a lone furrow up front didn’t fill the travelling Maroon Army with much hope.

And so it proved. The game
was barely 20 minutes old, but Hearts already found themselves two goals down. Defoe
had the ball in the net after only two minutes after slack play from John
Souttar but was denied by an offside flag. In the 16^th minute Tavernier’s
shot was blocked by Hearts keeper Bobby Zlamal, but Defoe fired home the rebound.
Five minutes later the home side doubled their lead when Goldson was given the
freedom of Ibrox to steer the ball past Zlamal.

At this stage Hearts had yet
to enter the Rangers penalty box far less threaten a goal although they rallied
briefly before half-time and Christophe Berra forced a fine save from Rangers
keeper McGregor.

It was the same one-way
traffic in the second half and Arfield finished the game as a contest – not that
there was one – three minutes into the second half when he fired past Zlamal.

Late on, Hearts substitute Olly
Lee forced a save from McGregor, but it was yet another shockingly poor performance
from the Maroons at Ibrox. Craig Levein clearly has a mental block playing
against the Old Firm in Glasgow and this transfers itself to his players who lack
any kind of belief when playing at Ibrox or Celtic Park.

Rangers: McGregor, Tavernier,
Worrall, Goldson, Jack (McCrorie, 60′), Defoe (Lafferty, 77′), Davis, Kent,
Flanagan, Kamara, Arfield (Grezda, 67′)

Hearts: Zlamal, Shaughnessy,
Souttar, Haring, Berra, Bozanic, Clare (Keena, 58′), Djoum (Lee, 69′), Wighton,
Brandon, Godinho (Burns, 58′)

Referee: Kevin Clancy

Attendance: 49,702

Top people: Those Hearts supporters whose unfaltering loyalty saw them head to Glasgow on a cold April evening believing their team could take something from the game. They deserve better, Mr Levein.