A farce unfolding at Rangers no longer counts as news.

There was a new outlet for the absurdity at Ibrox tonight, though, as the top-of-the-table Championship clash with Hearts crashed around for 24 minutes of slipping and sliding on heavy snow before being abandoned by referee Bobby Madden.

Both managers had agreed with the game going ahead and also with it ending, and Hearts' Robbie Neilson later claimed that players could have suffered career-threatening injuries if it had continued.

Supporters jeered the decision but soon Rangers fans redirected their anger at their own board. Before kick-off a sizeable protest had unfolded at the main entrance, easily the biggest of this entire ownership saga. Hundreds chanted angrily against the board, against Sandy and James Easdale, and against Mike Ashley.

They heckled when they suspected they saw directors trying to peek at them through windows. Some of the protesters did not attend the game itself on a point of principle but for those who did a "sack the board" chant immediately went up again before the players had skidded their way back to the tunnel.

The snow had begun falling heavily late in the afternoon. The lines and the six-yard boxes were cleared and Madden thought the pitch playable, even after a formal inspection around an hour before kick-off.

"It was soft underneath and then hard on top and it becomes a shambles," said Neilson. "Players were missing the ball and others were falling over it. The real worry is that someone gets injured.

"It's disappointing. Balls are flying about people, people are missing tackles and headers. We're a team that wants to pass and move and we couldn't do that. It was only a matter of time, if the game had gone on, that someone would have got a bad injury.

"Players' careers are on the line. There are young guys there who have got 15 years ahead of them in the game. If they had kept the game going it could have ruined a career."

Hearts' young midfielder, Sam Nicholson, said: "It makes you look a terrible football player. I think Lionel Messi would have been miskicking the ball on that pitch."

Madden came to the touchline to consult managers Neilson and Kenny McDowall in the 18th and 24th minutes, signalling the abandonment on the second occasion. The game, for what it was worth, was goalless, with Hearts on top and Alim Ozturk having a free-kick pushed on to the bar by Steve Simonsen. But the players couldn't keep their footing and the ball could not run.

"The players couldn't pass the ball or turn when they tried to run so it became very difficult," said McDowall. "It was the correct decision in the end to call it off. The under-soil heating was on full blast but just too much snow fell in a short time. I feel very sorry for the fans. It's expensive enough to watch football without it getting cut short." Fans who attended will be allowed to attend the rearranged game for free.

McDowall had been out on the pitch at 7pm, he said, and therefore did not hear the pre-match protest on the street outside, just yards from the home dressing room windows. "I know what you're talking about but I didn't hear it. This isn't new: we've had three-and-a-half years of this," he said.

Celtic manager Ronny Deila and his assistant John Collins were at the game. Fans ignored them to instead jeer the Easdales in the seats behind. It was that sort of night.