Pish, Pish, inglorious pish (Jambos …1 GERS … 0)

Goalmouth incident? Mmm? There wasn’t much but what there was certainly made the headlines: Let me see …

Olivier Bernard missed a sitter at the back post for us, shortly before Roman Bednar easily headed home the only goal of the game for them from a simple, near-post Paul Hartley corner.

Francis Jerffers, after some frankly sensational build-up play by Big Federico Nieto, had a late shot blocked by Robbie Neilson’s hand - should have been a penalty, wasn’t given. Paul Hartley tripped Barry Ferguson in the box, a bit earlier in the same half - should have been a penalty, wasn’t given.

Julien Rodriguez went in two-footed on someone in the same box, in the first half - apparently he got the ball first but if they can award penalties for sheer stupidity, Hearts were due one there. Wasn’t given. The same ex-Monaco stopper then pushed some other Jambo to the deck within the same minute … Should’ve been a penalty … wasn’t given.

Sotirios Kyrgiakos went down in the Hearts area spectacularly in a bid to win us a last-minute penalty - the linesman saw it wrong: Shouldn’t have been a penalty but it was given. Fernando Ricksen scored the winner from the spot in the last minute of the match and we escaped with all three points … in March 2005.

Yup, those were the few goalmouth incidents which played such a major part in yesterday’s match.

A tiny number of tiny-minded Bears may think we have a right to be outraged at Kenny Clark’s refusal to grant us a spot kick or two but, hopefully, the other incidents mentioned illustrate why we can have no complaints about officiating. Or, put it another way, we can’t have any more complaints than the Jambos.

Luckily, being Rangers fans, we won’t embarass ourselves by acting like the hooped hordes in the face of defeat - we won’t blame it on imaginary dark forces. We’re more likely to direct the vast majority of our outrage at a more likely source of the problem: Our team manager.

Hearts may not finish top of the table next May but all doubt about their credentials as genuine challengers are now officially gone: Hearts are favourites to win the SPL. Alex McLeish may yet salvage our league form and could do enough in Europe to make Rangers heroes by the end of the season, but it looks unlikely. He shouldn’t be sacked but Alex McLeish is now officially under pressure.

I don’t have a problem with a manager changing his tactics after little more than half an hour. I think it takes guts to make the public admission of fault constituted by removing one of your central defenders from play, uninjured, after only 36 minutes, and replacing him with an attacking midfielder.

However, the diagnosis of this problem came not from our gaffer but in the form of conceding a goal. By the time Julien Rodriguez made way for Thomas Buffel, McLeish’s patient had died. Had we continued with three centre-halves then the death would have simply been prolonged and more agonising. Hearts would have won by three or four. As it is, though, the patience McLeish is due after winning us our 51st league title is dying faster than it should.

Hearts lost Bednar to a Marvin Andrews-inflicted injury and Fryssas to a groin strain before the half-time break. We also had Novo taken off after just 20 minutes - he looks to be struggling for the San Siro trip - so it’s hard to tell which team’s momentum was more stymied by these set-backs. All you’re left with is the fact Hearts, over the piece, looked far more comfortable and with arguably more set-backs than ourselves, kept a clean sheet as they beat us.

Hearts are a good side - they are worthy league leaders. It’s no shame to lose to them, especially so narrowly and on their own patch. But Alex McLeish does not emerge well from this defeat because so many of our problems were self-inflicted and far from new.

The point at which new signings should have bedded in has long-since past. Jeffers is dissapointing but is at least he’s trying. He, perhaps, is one player with mitigating circumstances: His near-total lack of first-team football over the last year or so can explain why so much enthusiasm is yet to pay off. Bernard, however, looks both unfit and disinterested. Rodriguez is hopeless. Hemdani seems to have attitude problems which prevent him even making the roster.

Some of the longer-term players seem to be going backwards. Has Ricksen finally had enough of being jerked about positionally? Yesterday he was almost more of a hindrance than a help. It’s been a while since we said that but Nando’s going after the silly bookings again. Hearts, like any decent team, shove everyone they can on top of Barry Ferguson - Bazza was left wondering where the hell his minder had gone.

Even if playing three at the back is a worthy tactic, it doesn’t help when the players executing those tactics are as slow to do the basics as Big Marv yesterday. Maybe our Numero Uno Christian only looked bad through belatedly trying to cover someone else’s detail. The fact the big Trinidadian was the one to kick Bednar out the game a little later would, however, give the lie to this possible excuse.

Anyway, enough detail. If we analyse this game close enough we could end with the conclusion that, on another day, had the penalties been awarded more masonically, we could have come away with a draw or even a win. The fact is the bigger picture reveals we have had other days like this one already this season. There’s only eight games gone and we’re eleven points off the top of the SPL. Sorry but that’s ridiculous.

Hearts have their biggest ever budget, yes, but it’s still nothing compared to ours. We have a squad better than anyone else in the SPL. we have a centre-half who played in the Champions League final of 16 months ago looking lke he’s never defended in his life. We have a World Clas misdfielder and striker being sucked down to clogger level. We sell Shota Arveladze after a year on the bench and he’s now on bloody Eurogoals every week, setting the Eredivisie alight.

Pierre-FanFan? Where he? Pippo Maniero - what happened to him? It really is time for the gaffer to take some deserved flak.

We’ve prevously had the excuse that, while new signings gell, we’re dropping daft points in daft games but keeping the long-term picture rosy by winning the big ones. Porto and Celtic cancel out Hibs and Aberdeen. A draw at Falkirk is okay in light of home and away wins over Famagusta. But this was our biggest domestic game yet, and we lost. We’re no longer winning the big ones - when you’re about to face Inter in the San Siro, that’s a worrying development.