Hearts Preview - THE FIRST REAL TEST - Time To Stand Up And Be Counted

After all the shadow boxing of pre-season friendlies and low key league fixtures which really should have been gimmes, Rangers face their first major match of the new term this weekend.  If Paul Le Guen's team is to be the real deal, they simply have to put Hearts in their place. We have to put Sunday's poor display at Dunfermline behind us, regard it as merely a bad day at the office, and make amends by stepping up a gear when it matters.  And this one certainly matters.  The Jambos have been insufferable since squeezing ahead of the worst Rangers team in history to finish runners-up in the SPL, their Champions League dream is dead and buried and, apart from their win over Septic, their early season form hasn't been any more impressive than ours.  Beating them and edging ahead of them in the table would be a huge step forward. We'll have to be right on top of the job to do it.  Having already got the other mob's scalp, these upstarts will also be looking to send out a message but we can't let them do it at our expense.  In front of a noisy full house, our new look team will get a taste of what playing for Rangers is all about and, if this season is to live up to our expectations, seeing off the challenge of these pretenders isn't too much to ask. Kris Boyd has had a thing or two to say about his absence from the starting eleven and, despite Scotsport's laughable attempt to make something out of it - 'He might be for the off,' sneered Dellahunt - it is good to know the big fella is hurting.  I'm sure PLG won't be too upset by Boydie's comments and, for what its worth, I would have him in from the start against Hearts. Playing a neat one-touch passing game, Rangers are often guilty of overcooking it, making one pass too many, and with Dado Prso being more of a link-up player than a straightforward striker, he too can be inclined to overdo it.  Kris has no such baggage.  He is solely concerned with getting shots in at goal and, playing percentages, he is a cert to be high in the scoring charts again this season…but only if he is in the team. With Thomas Buffel having finally grabbed a goal last weekend, I'm hoping he'll get a big lift and, being sharp enough to get into scoring positions, I fancy him and Boydie to gel into a very productive partnership.  Defenders will always find the big fella to be a handful and Wee Tam is just the man to cash in so my upbeat mood about the season ahead hasn't been deflated too much by the unexpected loss of points against Dundee United and Dunfermline. What about Big Dado? I can hear you all screaming.  Don't panic, I'm not ready to chase the big pony-tail off to pastures new.  He is a major player for us and will continue to be so throughout this season but, approaching 32, he ain't in the first flush of youth so he needs to be used more sparingly.  Let Boydie batter defenders into the ground for the first hour or so then bring Dado off the bench to capitalise on bruised bodies and tired legs. Le Gaffer has had the luxury of fielding an unchanged side over the first three games of the season but, with two bad results and the arrival of Lee Martin and Phil Bardsley, he is likely to shake things up this weekend.  Burkey has been bright when coming off the subs bench so he'll feel he deserves to be in the starting line-up but Charlie Adam's defensive qualities could get him the nod again, with Bardsley perhaps being preferred to Alan Hutton. By the way, on the topic of Martin and Bardsley, I'm not too happy about Rangers being used as a testing ground for Man Utd's fringe players.  If they hit it off, they'll be whisked back to Old Trafford at Christmas but if they struggle, we can keep them.  That doesn't sound like a good deal to me.  Sure, we maybe need to get players in and, given our ropey finances, this is one way to do it.  But it is short-termism, it might offer a quick fix, but it must not be the way forward. My main concern about our team is at the heart of the defence.  The Rodriguez-Svensson partnership obviously still needs to be worked at and I was surprised to see Lionel Letizi take the brunt of the blame for Dunfermline's equaliser when, in my eyes, it was J Rod's needless jump into his keeper which caused the problem.  Lionel has shown himself to be perfectly capable of dealing with crosses and his centre-backs just have to let him get on with it. They will certainly be tested on Saturday.  Having been found out against AEK Athens and slipped up against Falkirk, Hearts will also feel they have a point to prove so we can expect no favours.  Look out for a few iffy tackles, Big Elvis trying to referee the game and, the biggest danger of all, Neil McCann's pace on the break.  He was one of the major losses during the great fire sale of 2003 and I always worried about him returning to haunt us.  Mind you, I thought he might someday wear a horrible hoopy jersey so things ain't all that bad. Here's hoping, we're all thinking along those lines over the weekend.  Victory over Hearts will get Rangers back on to the right track and regenerate all the optimism we felt just a few short weeks ago. Make it happen Gers. LITTLE BOY BLUE