Confident Hearts show steel to see off Rangers

The telling moment was not Stuart Findlay’s header to open the scoring.

- Ewan Murray

It was not Lawrence Shankland battering the ball beyond Jack Butland. Instead, the latest indicator that this isa Hearts team of proper substance arrived as they conceded a 95th-minute and ultimately immaterial goal to Youssef Chermiti.Frankie Kent, who had misjudged a through ball, was enraged. The Hearts goalkeeper Alexander Schwolow soon threw his gloves on the turf in anger. Derek McInnes, the manager, later only half joked that neither player was as furious as he was. Even losing a clean sheet isa cause for concern at Tynecastle nowadays. A year ago, they wererumbling around in the lower echelons of the league.

Hearts’ fairytale continues at vertiginous pace. McInnes and his players were already guaranteed to sit top of the table at Christmas - a feat previously achieved by a non-Old Firm team in 1993 and Hearts themselves two years earlier - but decided to demonstrate their superiority over Rangers for good measure.

Rangers have a game in hand but the dozen-point gap between them andaHearts team who have lost just once in 18 fixtures looks ominous for Danny Rohl. Rangers are not a particularly convincing operation either on or off the field.