Hearts host unbeaten Rangers at Tynecastle on Wednesday
Hearts' uneven recent form meets a Rangers side unbeaten in five, with a look at both runs and what PLZ Predictor members expect.
By Harvey Watkins,
Set aside one evening at Celtic Park and Hearts' recent record looks rather different. The 7-1 defeat on 18 October accounts for seven of the ten goals they have conceded across their last five matches. In the other four they let in three, and they have kept clean sheets in two of their last three outings. That is the context Hearts bring into Wednesday night's Scottish Premiership meeting with Rangers at Tynecastle Park, which kicks off at 20:00.
Hearts: an uneven five matches
The sequence reads W L W D L, with ten goals scored and ten conceded. The most recent result is a good one: a 2-0 win at Motherwell on 25 October. Before that came the heavy defeat at Celtic, and before that a 5-0 win over St. Mirren on 10 October, the only home match in the run.
September was less productive. Hearts drew 1-1 at Kilmarnock and lost 2-1 at Falkirk. Half of their ten goals came in the St. Mirren game, with the other five spread across four matches. The pattern is one of swings rather than steady progress, although they have scored in every one of those five games.
Rangers: unbeaten in five
Rangers arrive with a sequence of W D W W W, eleven goals scored, three conceded and three clean sheets. The standout result is a 1-0 win at Celtic on 20 September. The most recent is a 4-0 home win over St. Johnstone on 24 October.
The one interruption was a 2-2 draw at Dundee FC on 17 October, the only match in the run in which they conceded more than once. Three of the five were at home. Away from Ibrox they won at Celtic and drew at Dundee FC, a small sample, but not one that suggests they struggle on the road.
Reading the two runs together
The obvious comparison is Celtic: Rangers won there, Hearts were beaten heavily. It is tempting to lean on that, but the matches were a month apart, and one result says only so much.
The shared opponents give a more mixed picture. Hearts beat St. Mirren 5-0, while Rangers edged the same side 1-0. Rangers beat Kilmarnock 3-1 at home, while Hearts drew 1-1 there. Neither comparison is decisive.
Five matches each is thin evidence. What it does show is that Rangers have been the more consistent side, and that Hearts, outside one bad night, have been reasonably hard to score against lately.
What PLZ Predictor members expect
Twenty-eight PLZ Soccer members have entered their predictions in the PLZ Predictor. Half have gone for an away win, 29 per cent for a draw and 21 per cent for a Hearts win. The most common scoreline is 1-2, chosen by seven members. These are our readers' predictions, not odds, and a small group at that.
The view
On recent form Rangers have the stronger case. They have lost none of their last five and have conceded more than once only at Dundee FC. Both sides have scored in each of their last five matches, which points towards goals at both ends.
Hearts' home win over St. Mirren and their clean sheet at Motherwell show what they can do when things go their way, and a draw would not be a surprise. My view, and it is only that, is that Rangers' steadier run makes them slightly the likelier winners, but Hearts' form has been too changeable to rule much out.