The Edinburgh festival has just begun but, for two particular tribes, there were no dilemmas about identifying the hottest ticket in town. As the curtain rose on another Scottish Premiership season, Hearts and Rangers rewarded the fans who had marched en masse to Tynecastle by issuing a highly entertaining reminder that goalless draws can sometimes be engrossing.
All high tempo and spiced by a refreshing, often intelligent, directness this represented a decent advert for top-tier football in Scotland.
“It’s the correct result,” said the Rangers manager, Philippe Clement. “It’s a fair point. I always want more. I always want better and I wanted to win. We were close but I also know we could have lost. There are lots of individual things we can do better … but this is just the start of our marathon.”
Many regular watchers of Scottish football were surprised when Jack Butland failed to make England’s Euro 2024 squad and the Rangers goalkeeper did not take long to suggest they had a point.
In expertly pushing James Penrice’s dangerous early shot around a post he also emphasised that Clement was almost certainly not being disingenuous when, shortly before kick off, he declared that, despite the recruitment of nine new players during a turbulent summer off the pitch at Ibrox, his squad was “probably not better” than last season.
With Costa Rica’s Gerald Taylor commencing life on loan at Hearts from Deportivo Saprissa by offering his new public a masterclass in attacking while severely restricting Óscar Cortés’s room for manoeuvre, Rangers spent much of the first half on the ropes. It was surely no coincidence that their mini second-half renaissance arrived only after their major summer signing started to tire.
As Butland made a couple of decent saves from the immensely influential and widely coveted forward Lawrence Shankland, Yan Dhanda saw a shot deflected on to the woodwork and the visitors conceded a series of corners, it became increasingly hard to imagine Rangers somehow leapfrogging Celtic to improve on last term’s second place.
Hearts ended up third last season, but, despite their goalkeeper, Zander Clark, doing well to deny Connor Barron, they look capable of ensuring Celtic are not the only opponent capable of giving Clement sleepless nights.
If the Belgian can only dream of Rodgers being prised away from Rangers’ Old Firm rivals by the vacant England job or, should Eddie Howe be persuaded to accept Gareth Southgate’s old post, Newcastle, he at least has Cyriel Dessers leading his attacking line.
The second half had barely begun when a fleetingly euphoric Clement shaped to celebrate. After James Tavernier’s fine corner, Dessers hit both post and crossbar with a viciously swerving, high-velocity header that had Clark beaten.
Despite a definite improvement featuring considerably more visiting midfield control and Clark performing wonders to tip Tom Lawrence’s half volley over the bar, Rangers – and the soon to be substituted Ben Davies especially – continued to be troubled by Kenneth Vargas’s attacking pace and had reason to be relieved Shankland’s low shot did not quite sneak beneath Butland.
“There were some good chances missed,” said Steven Naismith, Hearts’ manager. “But loads to like.”
Clement’s problem is that Rangers fans regard this as two points dropped and, should Celtic win at home to Kilmarnock on Sunday afternoon, a team forced to stage home games at Hampden Park until improvements to Ibrox are completed, will be playing catch-up.
More positively, the lack of a winning goal ensures the abiding memories will centre on the standing ovation Hearts supporters afforded Taylor as the understandably fast-fading full-back was finally withdrawn after 85 minutes.
Edinburgh in August is all about the emergence of new talent but, already, it seems doubtful that anyone, in any sphere, will eclipse the Costa Rican’s Tynecastle debut act.
