Hearts 0

Rangers 2

Substitutions

Hearts Adam (Wales 59), Kirk (Simmons 59) Rangers None

Subs not used

Hearts McKenzie, Boyack, McMullan Rangers McGregor, Dodds, Ross, Wilson, Lovenkrands

REFEREE Ian Fyfe

bookings

Hearts Simmons 59 Rangers None

Attendance 14,124

THINGS can't get much wackier than Tynecastle on Saturday night. If you looked up to the stand, the Holland manager, Dick Advocaat, had a runny nose, and was dabbing it with his hanky. If you looked in the Rangers dugout, there was Alex McLeish, Big Eck himself, standing beside Jan Wouters, one of Advocaat's imports, and the man who cracked Paul Gascoigne's jaw at Wembley in 1993, when Advocaat was last with Holland.

If you looked on the pitch, there was Bert Konterman, or ''Bert the Inert'' as one Rangers supporter had taken to calling him, except that such a moniker these days is hopelessly off the mark. Konterman has found the Lord, apparently, a story which, as ever, the tabloids couldn't quite handle in their slew of ''Bible-fearing Bert'' and ''devout Bert'' yarns yesterday.

The Rangers fans, though, are beside themselves at his renaissance. ''Oh, Bertie, Bertie'' they sang lustily in Edinburgh.

On Wednesday night, Holland again play England, this time in a friendly in Amsterdam. From these parts the one Dutchman of any significance who won't be there is Konterman. Fernando Ricksen and Ronald de Boer will be involved, but Advocaat, in his first squad since getting back with Holland, has deemed Konterman not to be good enough.

It is one of a number of ironies surrounding Rangers since Advocaat left and McLeish took over that Konterman, bible to hand or not, has been transported to a land of heroes.

In truth, Konterman on Saturday did very little except embody the current confidence which is flushing through Rangers. In fact, he played in what is deemed to be his weaker position, in central defence, but beside a player whose ego, body, and ability these days occupy the landmass of three men.

Konterman and Lorenzo Amoruso make for an interesting contrast. While ''bible-fearing'' Bert is immersed in scripture, Amoruso, according to the red-tops, is enjoying an energy-sapping love-life off the pitch. Set beside his on-field efforts, Amoruso was twice pictured yesterday beside the most bustin' out brunette you could imagine. The Italian stallion is surely quite exhausted.

What has any of this to do with the fitba? Nothing, except to say that Rangers can do no wrong, and everything right (except in Bert's biblical sense) these days. Barring one or two dizzy incursions from Ricardo Fuller, Hearts were pulled apart by McLeish's side, especially during a second period when de Boer, Shota Arveladze, and Neil McCann were boring down on Antti Niemi from every angle.

For Hearts, at a time when they were two goals adrift, and supposedly chasing the game, it must have been a depressing experience.

More surreal still seemed the minute's silence before kick-off for Princess Margaret. It was baffling, but surely a testimony to a dying way of British life, to hear the stadium announcer proclaim this mark of respect, and to have to clamber to one's feet in the cramped Tynecastle pressbox.

Not surprisingly, given some of the cultural baggage that surrounds Rangers and Hearts, the silence was observed impeccably. Equally unsurprisingly, a similar silence was not observed at Parkhead. When the game ettled into its rhythm, some old truths were re-affirmed. Niemi is surely the best goalkeeper in Scotland, and a gem for Hearts to have between their sticks, as became evident during a sequence of agile saves, in particular from Arveladze's flying header, following a flowing Rangers move after 37 minutes, which the Finn miraculously diverted over his bar.

In a fit of nobility the Rangers striker duly eyed the goalkeeper and acknowledged his excellence, a look which Niemi received gratefully but bashfully.

This was one of a series of saves, which, ultimately, were not to deny Rangers. Again playing a 4-3-3 system which McLeish for the meantime has settled upon, the Ibrox side despatched the ball in quick, confident deliveries which gave them an imperious air. Stevie Fulton and Stephen Simmons tried hard to disrupt this business but it was a thankless task.

The greatest aristocrat in Rangers' ranks is de Boer, a swaggering, chest-puffing man who, during his erratic bursts of form, enjoys these times when his conceit is justified.

Saturday was one such day. De Boer, after 61 minutes, opened the scoring for Rangers, almost contemptuously prodding the ball past Niemi from seven yards after a sweeping move involving McCann's run and cross and Tore Andre Flo's neat dummy.

It was tickling watching de Boer at the end of these 90 minutes, knowing he had performed royally, make for the visitors' end of Tynecastle to receive his acclaim, his body language almost saying: ''Ah, my people, may ye bow to me in homage . . . ''

As the endlessly-impressive Craig Levein said later, Hearts might have had more put past them, but Rangers had to settle for just two. Twenty minutes after de Boer, McCann, eagerly snatching his first-team chance, embarked on a mazy run which was only briefly threatened by Thomas Flogel's half-hearted challenge, before hammering his shot past Niemi from 18 yards.

These are still early days for McLeish and Rangers, and a greater body of evidence will be required. For the meantime, though, the signs are good. As Bert the Inert might say to Big Eck: be ye of good faith and thy fruits will surely follow.