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The Football Show · 28 October 2026
"How grateful he is for me leaving him such a strong squad here." Derek McInnes after Hearts 2-2 Rangers on his first game back at Tynecastle: "disappointed we never showed more authority in the game", why "I think Hearts had the better players", a second half that was "inexplicable really", the late equaliser from a set play, the handshake with Wouter Vrancken, and the pelters from the fans who "used to adore you". Wednesday 28 October 2026.
CHAPTERS
0:00 "we deserve a point" - Hearts 2-2 Rangers
2:24 Derek McInnes' handshake with Wouter Vrancken
2:40 Pelters on his return to Tynecastle
Derek McInnes Post Match Interview Transcript (Hearts vs Rangers):
Derek, are you disappointed or happy that you got a point?
I think when you're you go in front at a place like this, disappointed we never showed more authority in the game. I don't think you expect to have control when you come to Tynecastle. We've got a very young forward line and I don't think we secured the ball of it enough. I think we did as we did to the two strikers combining for go. It's a brilliant goal in terms of combination play for them. But when you're two teams effectively 4-4-2 and playing full press and going after the ball, it's not so much the first ball up that you need to win, it's the next one. And I thought Hearts for certainly that 15-minute period before half-time and kept picking up a lot of the ball, kept feeding their wider players, their forward players. I thought their forward players looked after the ball a lot better and we were giving away cheap free kicks and playing with fire to be honest. So I was disappointed at how into half-time we gave up a lot of control of the game. You know, you've got to credit Hearts. I think Hearts had the better players. I think they had three or four real top performers tonight and players who played really well. So, have to be honest with that.
And we never started second half. It's inexplicable really. We lose another free kick given away cheaply. We get punished at this time for it with Claudio's goal and then we lose possession. And when you lose possession against a team at Hearts because the way they drag you all over that transition they're also susceptible to that if you they give the ball away in those areas but they're also capable of punishing you and they were good enough to punish us and we never defended with any real certainty tonight and we needed to in these moments.
As the game played on and obviously we make changes it was only really the last 15, 20 minutes where we started to knit a few passes I think partly because Hearts maybe were tiring a wee bit. And the game becomes a bit bigger. The space has become a bit bigger and we started to play a wee bit more but we get an equaliser for a set play. Which is pleasing. So from that point of view we deserve a point but although we should have won it at the end it'd have been really harsh on Hearts. We'd have took it of course but we didn't do enough to win the game but we worked hard. I think stats will show we had more possession, we had more big chances similar shots on target I think it was but you know I thought as I say the better performers were in Hearts jerseys tonight.
Was there a wee bit of friction between you and Wouter at the end? Did you make up? No, all good. All good. All good. He says he would have preferred a nicer handshake from you at the end. Yeah, I think it was just I think he was just thanking me, how grateful he is for me leaving him such a strong squad here.
Just on the point of the sideshow, did you expect a fair bit of pelters from the guys that used to and everybody here that used to adore you? Yeah, I think that Scottish football is what it is that I didn't expect anything different and why should I, you know, I get it. Totally get it. You know, I liked coming in and seeing all my ex players, all the players I've signed. I actually met some of the players I'd signed for the first time. It was quite surreal, but seeing all the staff here and all my former players and so I had a brilliant time here. It was only foress and so that's part of it. But obviously once the whistle goes I know I'm not going to get it. People are going to be kind to me and I totally understand it. But it doesn't change how I feel about this club and my time here.
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