Following today’s clash between Rangers and Hearts, here are the instant reactions from both managers.
Rangers hosted Hearts at Ibrox Stadium for a 3pm kick off on Saturday February 24, with the hosts taking a two nil victory. Jamie Murphy got them underway shortly before the half time restart and a goal two minutes from full time from Russell Martin confirmed the points as they narrowed the gap at the top of the table to six points with Celtic playing on Sunday.
Teams:
Rangers:
Foderingham, Tavernier, Bates, Martin, John, Docherty (Holt 82), Goss, Candeias, Windass, Murphy, Morelos (Cummings 75).
Substitutes:
Miller, Herrera, Halliday, Bruno Alves, Alnwick.
Hearts:
McLaughlin, Smith, Souttar, Hughes, Berra, Mitchell, Callachan, Adao (Buaben 45), Cochrane (Naismith 73), Henderson (McDonald 60), Lafferty.
Substitutes:
Hamilton, Randall, Godinho, Irving.
Speaking to the BBC’s cameras a short time after match day referee John Beaton blew the final whistle, Rangers manager Graeme Murty explained.
‘I’m not sure we’re in Celtic’s minds. They’ll take care of themselves and play as well as they can. All we can do is make sure we do our job and that’s the message we take on. They are top of the league for a good reason. We will just concentrate on us and make sure we finish the season as best we can. But our group have to take solace and comfort from taking care of the business that they can take care of – and maybe they haven’t in the past – and that is the really pleasing thing for me.’
Hearts manager Craig Levein in his comparative interview explained.
‘Truthfully, we probably got away with one today. Two-nil flatters us. I thought our goalkeeper was excellent as were John Souttar and Christophe Berra. So that tells you pretty much about the performance. We had a 10 to 15 minute spell in the first half where we had opportunities but we didn’t capitalise on it. Any time we showed composure it looked like we might get something and we missed a couple of chances but Graeme will say the same, they had more opportunities than us by far.’
