NO QUICK FIX FOR THIS REPAIR JOB
Caixinha and Cathro both know hard work starts now 4
PEDRO CAIXINHA and Ian Cathro have more in common than a working knowledge of Portuguese football.
For the men guiding Rangers and Hearts these are testing, difficult times. Questions are being asked of their managerial nous. Of their tactics in big games and, ultimately, their results.
A summer of wheeling and dealing lies ahead and neither has huge sums to play with. How much they spend matters less than how they spend it.
The Portuguese has been left to clear up the mediocrity left behind by his predecessor.
The addition of Christophe Berra is the first step towards Cathro steadying the ship after nine rushed signings in January. The impact of poor recruitment on the league positions of Rangers
and Hearts is obvious. Defeat at Ibrox will increase scrutiny of Cathro most.
When the teams last met, Hearts won 4-1 in February. A night expected to have the recuperative powers of a Portuguese espresso for the Tynecastle coach, it didn’t quite work that way.
Reduced to ten men by a first-half red card for Prince Buaben — unwisely cast as a central defender — an improved second-half performance at Ibrox was wrecked by the kind of goalkeeping blunder that is becoming a habit. Benching Jack Hamilton, Viktor Noring was given a rare start in goal. The faces might change but for Hearts the final outcome is usually the same.
Cathro has now won just six of his 24 games since taking charge. The Edinburgh team were second in the league when he took over from Robbie Neilson. They are now fifth, St Johnstone securing the final place in the Europa League qualifiers on Saturday with victory over Partick Thistle.
Rangers know how it feels to be pipped by a team with a lower budget. The Ibrox club will finish third behind Aberdeen but any prospect of Hearts nudging them into fourth disappeared weeks ago.
Give the Edinburgh team this much. Playing with ten men for an hour, they made a fight of it.
The Hipster’s Derby looked a one-horse race when Rangers took the lead in seven minutes. James Tavernier burst over the halfway line, releasing Kenny Miller for an outstanding cross guided off the inside of the post by the head of Joe Garner.
Only a sprawling save by Noring prevented Garner from scoring a second goal minutes later.
Denied a penalty kick when Clint Hill collided with Jose Goncalves in the 20th minute, Hearts knew this would be a long day when Buaben was red carded for denying Josh Windass a goalscoring opportunity. It could have been a rout, then.
The half-time withdrawal of Malaury Martin for Tasos Avlonitis changed things.
Far from retreating further into their shell, settling for a day of damage limitation, Hearts went for it.
And Ibrox fell silent in 51 minutes when they equalised.
It began with a swift, clinical breakaway prompted by poor control from Windass. Don Cowie, who had a terrific second half, set Bjorn Johnsen free on the left, the gangling striker squaring for an unmarked Goncalves to slam the visitors level. Running through the Rangers midfield at will, Hearts began to fancy their chances for all of two minutes. The home side, however, regained the lead when Tavernier’s looping cross into a crowded area was punched up in the air by Noring, the Hearts keeper flapping at the ball as he tried to gather it at the second attempt. It was a weak, pitiful piece of goalkeeping, Barrie McKay thumping the loose ball low into the corner for 2-1. The shame for Noring is that he made some decent saves. He prevented Rangers adding a third on a couple of occasions, parrying Jon Toral’s right-foot shot before denying Martyn Waghorn when the substitute was through on goal.
Jamie Barjonas, the 18-year-old midfielder, was also given a 24-minute home debut, describing the experience as a ‘dream come true’.
An exotic surname obscures the fact the teenager actually grew up in Cumbernauld.
‘My great grandfather was from Lithuania, so that’s the story behind my surname,’ he explained. ‘But I’m definitely Scottish. I joined Rangers when I was only eight, so I have worked right through the age groups.’
Rangers are poised to withdraw their development team from the SPFL to pit themselves against English and European opponents next season.
Crediting Caixinha with taking a greater interest in youth development at the club, Barjonas said: ‘There is a clear pathway to the first team now.
‘When Myles (Beerman) got into the first team, it gave every single
player in the under-20s such a massive lift. Training lifted, the quality and the tempo lifted, too.
‘There is that clear pathway for us now. We know if we work hard and we show our quality then we will make it.
‘a lot more people are around the under-20s now. The gaffer spoke to me just before I came on. He just said: “It’s your home debut, go and enjoy it”.
‘It was as simple as that. I went on and I enjoyed it.
‘I think the last time I played at Ibrox was a Thursday morning for the under-20s against Motherwell. There were 20 people there that day.
‘It was some difference playing in front of 50,000 fans. It was a dream come true. I tried to play as well as I could.’
For Barjonas, like other young rangers players, the example to follow is obvious.
‘Kenny Miller has been a big influence on me,’ he continued.
‘He comes in on his days off. He helps out at training with the under-20s and comes to our games, too. If you ever need his advice, he’ll sit you down and talk for hours if you need.
‘not every senior player would do that, so he has been a great role model for me and a lot of the other under-20 players.’