ABANDON HOPES
Call-off has Rangers on thin ice for Paterson
CRAIG PATERSON fears Hearts could almost be out of Rangers’ sight by the time the teams get to replay their league clash which was abandoned on Friday night.
The Championship’s top two lasted 24 minutes in the snow at Ibrox before referee Bobby Madden called the match off with conditions becoming more treacherous.
That means they remain 13 points apart at the top of the table with 16 fixtures to play between now and the end of the campaign.
Both teams are back in league action on Saturday, with the Jambos hosting Falkirk and Rangers facing a tricky trip to Cowdenbeath.
But due to their League Cup derby with Celtic and a Scottish Cup tie against Raith a week later, Kenny McDowall’s men won’t play again in the Championship after that until February 13.
They are at home to Hibs — a side which has comfortably beaten the Light Blues twice already this season — that weekend.
In the period Rangers don’t play any second-tier football, Hearts will go to relegation candidates Alloa and Livingston in the league as they are out of the cup competitions. While they will have games in hand over the Tynecastle team, it’s perfectly feasible Rangers could soon find themselves 20 points off the summit.
And having had a chance to exert pressure on Robbie Neilson’s side with a win over them on Friday, former Ibrox defender Paterson thinks that opportunity may now have slipped away.
He said: ‘Rangers know already they have to win every game between now and the end of the season to have any chance of winning the league.
‘That situation doesn’t really change for them. Hearts remain in control and they have shown no signs of weakness so far.
‘All Rangers can do is rattle off victory after victory and hope for the best but that might still not be enough and if Hearts get points on the board, it will feel like it’s getting harder.
‘If Rangers had got the gap back to 10 points on Friday, they could hope Hearts might lose somewhere and if it then got down to seven, there might be a bit of pressure.
‘Instead, they might now see the gap opening up even further because of the fixtures both teams have and the game being cancelled on Friday works far better for Hearts.
‘They don’t play Rangers for the last time until the final day of the season which suits them, too.
‘They are unbeaten and have only dropped points to Hibs on two occasions and Dumbarton, so their confidence is sky high.
‘All Rangers can do now is hit and hope, and it’s going to be a bit of a miracle if they can close the gap. It’s a big ask and I don’t see Hearts dropping many points.’
Referee Madden was criticised by many supporters for allowing Friday’s game to start in the first place with the Ibrox pitch covered in snow.
But given the shower which ultimately left it unplayable came within an hour of kick-off with most fans already in the ground’s vicinity, Paterson thinks he was right to begin the match. He has defended the whistler and maintains conditions were such that it was realistic to hope for an improvement over time.
Paterson added: ‘When 2,000 Hearts fans had travelled through from Edinburgh on a terrible night like that, I think a lot of them would applaud the referee for at least giving it a go.
‘Rather than just saying no and sending them home again, I think it was better he gave it 20 minutes to see what happened given everyone was already there.
‘I thought at the start the conditions would suit Rangers better as they would hit Jon Daly, and it nearly worked for them when he knocked one down for Nicky Law to have a chance.
‘But it became more and more difficult and if the game becomes a lottery and the safety of players comes into question, the referee has to call it off.’