CURRENT CROP DRAW A BLANK
Toothless Rangers held by Hearts while Caixinha’s cast-offs are scoring up and down the country
AS he scatters cast-off forwards all around the country to grateful clubs benefiting from goodwill Rangers bargains, Pedro Caixinha couldn’t buy a goal. Now he needs to have more luck buying time.
For the second successive weekend, Rangers flopped at home to Edinburgh opposition and trooped off leaving a subdued Ibrox to ponder when this collection of signings will click. If ever.
And as scores and scorers were checked on phones and heard on car radios from venues up and down the nation, those disaffected filtering out of Ibrox learned to their alarm that the clutch of strikers invited to leave by Caixinha are making much quicker impressions elsewhere this season.
Michael O’Halloran, Barrie McKay, Martyn Waghorn and Joe Garner all netted in victories for their new employers from Perth to Nottingham to Ipswich.
Back at Ibrox, on came Ryan Hardie to save the day, a substitute for Graham Dorrans on 72 minutes.
No harm at all to the promising 20-year-old. But he was loaned out to St Mirren and Raith last season, down at the bottom of the second tier, and was a scorer at a very different level in midweek as the Rangers Under-20s tumbled out of the Irn-Bru Cup to Dumbarton.
Asking him to break down a Hearts back line bolstered by an excellent display from veteran Christophe Berra wasn’t the rescue act Ibrox expected to be calling for three Saturdays into the season, following a nine-signing summer by Caixinha. Hardie was promoted to the bench to replace the injured Eduardo Herrera.
There are questions hanging over a lot of Caixinha’s work at Rangers so far. His decision-making on who to usher out of the door in the close season is something he doesn’t need a torch to be shone at on gloomy days such as this.
His judgment ranks Jamie Walker worth a go to be his tenth capture. Rangers have had two bids rejected by Hearts and were offered a close look at the goods as Jon Daly pushed the winger up through in support of Isma Goncalves here.
Walker’s most recent sighting in Hearts colours was at Peterhead in the dying days of Ian Cathro’s dysfunctional regime on July 25 as his side suffered a Betfred Cup defeat.
Informed by Daly that this was his chance to prove his £1million price tag was spot on, Walker was unable to get on the ball and impress his suitors further. He trudged off just after the hour.
The main men for Hearts were a former Rangers signing target in captain Berra, who held it all together in his battles with Kenny Miller and Alfredo Morelos, and ex-Ibrox striker Kyle Lafferty, whose graft up and down the flank was an outstanding contribution to plundering this point.
Miller had bemoaned Rangers’ failure to build on blistering starts in previous weeks.
Oh for such worries yesterday as Hearts were in no mood to allow them that early breakthrough. Indeed, they posed the greater threat in the opening exchanges while the home side laboured to build meaningful moves with a host of distribution shockers.
When a rocket from John Souttar cannoned off the underside of the bar with Wes Foderingham beaten on 17 minutes, the warning shot had been fired.
Lafferty crafted a curling followup that was close enough to prompt gasps of relief from the fans behind the Englishman’s goal, then many a call for the Rangers defence to liven up to the danger.
With Dorrans key to the best work, Rangers got a grip. Souttar was sharp to close down Josh Windass as good movement from the Ibrox wide man helped him connect with a clever Dorrans pass down the throat of the defence.
Berra charged down Miller’s drive as both Hearts centre-halves stood strong in front of Jack Hamilton. It marked the spell in the game where Rangers asked most questions of an ever-retreating visiting defence.
The Portuguese connection from a Daniel Candeias corner to an unmarked Bruno Alves ghosting free at the back post led to Michael Smith’s goal-line header.
Morelos tapped in but only after Lee Wallace was whistled for straying offside and Hearts were grateful to their goalkeeper for maintaining the stalemate on the stroke of half-time.
Miller raced on to Wallace’s cross to crack the ball at an awkward height. Hamilton’s outstretched left leg was the point-saver.
He was not required to produce shot-stopping heroics in the second half, simply coming for the right crosses and punches at the appropriate moments because his defence was superbly marshalled.
With the lack of an ex-Celtic hate figure in the opposition technical area to bring Ibrox to life, Niko Kranjcar’s introduction would have to do. Caixinha waited only six second-half minutes to bring the Croatian on for Windass.
Kranjcar, drifting in from the left, begged for the ball in space. Then he went central. He even bailed out toiling colleagues by taking a booking deep in his own half as Hearts went on the break. None of this was enough to provide the 33-year-old with an opening to free himself from a compact visiting midfield and pick the right lock.
A fierce drive across Hamilton’s goalmouth from Morelos was almost deflected into his own net by Don Cowie, another Hearts man whose tireless shift cranked up the frustrations in Rangers ranks.
On 80 minutes, Hardie’s chance arrived. Set up by Candeias, he was just unable to shift the ball away quickly enough and his right-foot drive was deflected wide.
Rafal Grzelak was introduced for Jamie Brandon for the late stand from Hearts and when he met a Morelos effort to clear on the line, Rangers recognised their fate: that another afternoon of underachievement would end in jeers from a most sceptical home support.