Hearts' frustrations laid bare with issues around goal and stoppage-time against Rangers

Home camp feel they competed better but cursed the decisive goal

Hearts head coach Steven Naismith outlined his frustrations after seeing his team lose 1-0 to Rangers at Tynecastle Park. He felt the home players competed better than in some previous encounters with the Ibrox club, but bemoaned the concession of a straightforward goal.

James Tavernier's through pass split the Hearts defence for Abdallah Sima to stroke home the only goal of the night after 34 minutes, and Naismith was frustrated by how easily his back line was carved open. Prior to that, Alex Cochrane had missed a glaring chance to put the hosts ahead when he hit a close-range shot off Tavernier when it seemed easier to score.

"It turned out a tight game," said Naismith. "We started okay, when we moved the ball we did all right but at times we either took too long or made too safe a pass. We had the biggest chance with Alex which came from a good move. It doesn't go in and then we lose a really poor goal.

"For them to have a throw-in in their defensive third and within a few passes they get a chance, we didn't cover ourselves in glory with that. It's important in those moments that you don't unravel like you've seen probably over the years. We managed to stay in the game.

"We changed the shape, Rangers had a few chances but we defended well. They missed the chances and Zander came up with a couple of good saves. I think the change of shape helped us. We had more of an attacking threat and then we had a couple of chances towards the end. I'm disappointed not to take anything from the game.

"These games are fundamentally done on small margins. We were defensively poor for their goal, then we have some really good chances. Kyosuke [Tagawa] has one where he slashes at it and misses the ball. It's a really good chance and we should be hitting the target with that. Kenneth [Vargas] has another one where he tries an overhead kick. If we can work that slightly better, it's a better chance. That was probably the difference, that we never created more and tested the goalie."

Asked whether his team competed as he wanted them to against Rangers, Naismith replied: "Yes and no. When we did it well, we win the ball and we create attacks. Then there are other times you need to just accept you can't win it. Then, in that middle zone, they have some intelligent players and manage to play a couple of passes - before you know it, you're defending your box. So there is a bit of that.

"They have intelligent players who are sharp, but when you play the Old Firm you need to run the risk of being exposed a few times. We did that, we got through it, and at the end we had a few chances and could have taken something out of the game."

Naismith complained that only three minutes of stoppage-time were added at the end despite a raft of substitutions. "Who knows? I didn't put my stopwatch on so I don't know how many minutes should have been added on, but it went quick," he said with a smirk.