{"id":203737,"date":"2025-12-21T16:05:06","date_gmt":"2025-12-21T16:05:06","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/203737\/"},"modified":"2025-12-21T16:05:06","modified_gmt":"2025-12-21T16:05:06","slug":"hearts-tighten-grip-on-premiership-top-spot-as-shankland-strikes-to-down-rangers-scottish-premiership","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/203737\/","title":{"rendered":"Hearts tighten grip on Premiership top spot as Shankland strikes to down Rangers | Scottish Premiership"},"content":{"rendered":"

Rangers arrived in Edinburgh with a view to reminding onlookers they can be a key component in this season\u2019s Scottish title race. They departed as the latest victims of the Hearts juggernaut. Back to back wins against Celtic had already been secured before Hearts repeated the trick against Rangers<\/a>. Dreams of a first Hearts title since 1960 are not merely alive. They are growing. Rangers are a dozen points adrift of Derek McInnes\u2019s team after this, a first away league defeat of 2025. Hearts are 18 games and halfway towards the promised land.<\/p>\n

Rangers had arguably been the better side before Hearts<\/a> whacked them with two, decisive first-half goals. Stuart Findlay claimed the first of them, the centre back rising highest after Alexandros Kyziridis combined with Claudio Braga for a short corner. Kyziridis\u2019s cross was pinpoint. The Greek winger had earlier threatened the Rangers goal twice, the visitors having a potential opener ruled out for an offside against Bojan Miovski.<\/p>\n

Emmanuel Fernandez\u2019s header flies narrowly wide of the Hearts goal. Photograph: Jane Barlow\/PA<\/p>\n

Number two was a disaster for Jack Butland in the Rangers goal. Lawrence Shankland sensed opportunity when latching on to a Braga knockdown but the angle should have been far too tight for the Hearts captain to score. With Butland painfully slow to move, Shankland beat the former England goalkeeper at his near post.<\/p>\n

Despite various rejigs, Rangers offered little after the break. Shankland, twice, should have notched a Hearts third. Hearts\u2019 ability to manage the game was striking. Rangers\u2019 consolation came via Youssef Chermiti in the dying seconds. \u201cWe shall not be moved\u201d sang the Tynecastle masses. They may well have a point.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Rangers arrived in Edinburgh with a view to reminding onlookers they can be a key component in this…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":203738,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[61,60,112],"class_list":["post-203737","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-sports","tag-ie","tag-ireland","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/203737","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=203737"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/203737\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/203738"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=203737"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=203737"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=203737"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}