Meanwhile, Hearts are out to pile on the pain

HEARTS head coach Robbie Neilson insists his runaway league leaders are ready to answer Fraser Aird’s taunts in convincing style at Ibrox tonight. Responding to new Gorgie striker Genero Zeefuik’s claim that a win for the Tynecastle side would end the Championship title race, Aird brushed off the Dutchman’s comments as ‘disrespectful’ — declaring Rangers were still the better team. Ibrox caretaker boss Kenny McDowall intervened yesterday by ordering his 19-year-old winger to do his talking on the park instead. And that was a sentiment shared by Neilson last night when he declared: ‘We’ve done all our talking on the pitch so far — and we’ll do it again at Ibrox tomorrow night. ‘There is no need for us to say we’re going to do this or that, or to start talking about what other teams will do. ‘The game isn’t won in the papers. It’s won on the training ground and on the pitch. ‘We could quite easily come out and say something back. But we don’t need to. You are better concentrating on your own

team, your own performance as a player or a coach. Go and do it on the pitch, that’s where it counts.’ McDowall also insisted that Aird would be better off proving his side are a match for the Jambos rather than simply saying so. ‘I believe he (Aird) said it was disrespectful — what their player said. That is fine, I don’t have an issue with that,’ said McDowall. ‘You should be confident but keep a lid on it, do your talking on the park.’ Asked if he felt the league table was an accurate representation of the clubs’ strengths, McDowall replied: ‘No, I can’t argue with it. Hearts have gone unbeaten. I can’t say Hearts don’t deserve to be where they are. ‘They’re a tough team, like Hibs are as well. But I could also say that about Alloa. They gave us a tough match as well in the games we’ve played them. ‘Every game is tough and it’s been tough against Hearts. But they’ve been close games so I wouldn’t say they are miles better than us, no.’ McDowall also insisted he wants to keep Kris Boyd at Ibrox — even though the striker hasn’t started since December. Fellow Rangers front man Jon Daly turned up the heat a little more yesterday by insisting Hearts players tried to con the referee when the sides last met in a 2-0 victory for the Jambos at Tynecastle in November. ‘I felt they went down fairly easily and rolled about a bit,’ he said. ‘That’s something we are going to have to be wary of this time round and make sure we don’t give the ref any decisions to make.’ Daly also believes a win for Rangers will crank up the pressure on their rivals. ‘If we win, we’ll have clawed at a gap that was 15 to 10 — that’s 33 per cent off,’ he said. ‘It’s a big chunk. We’d still need them to drop points and make sure we keep winning.’