Man down: Lee Wallace earns a second yellow card

Hearts boss Csaba Laszlo hopes yesterday's victory over Rangers will convince other Scottish teams that the Old Firm are not invincible. Rangers' title hopes were dealt a further blow when they lost 2-1 at Tynecastle.

Rangers were already trailing leaders Celtic by four points and goals from Marius Zaliukas and Laryea Kingston added to their woes. An own-goal from Christos Karipidis and the sending off of Lee Wallace – who picked up a second yellow for a challenge on Chris Burke in the closing stages – failed to alter the final outcome.

Laszlo said: "I believe in my work and I believe in my team. I know at the moment it's important to collect the points and if you can win against Rangers, especially at home, you must win and you must take the points. But if you beat Rangers, you take only three points. If you beat Celtic, you take only three points. The other teams can believe Rangers and Celtic are not so good."

Walter Smith admitted his side failed to handle Hearts' threat from set-pieces. "I don't think Hearts had many opportunities in terms of attempts at goal or cutting us open but it was more of the set-play aspect we didn't handle and it cost us.

"We proceeded to give away far too many free-kicks in the first 20-25 minutes. After that, for the last hour, it was played almost entirely in Hearts' half, but we weren't good enough to create opportunities. We've had one or two too many off-days. That's been the problem. There's been these lapses that have caused us these problems."

Asked about the title race, Smith added: "Any points that we drop are a blow to us. It certainly means that in the three Old Firm games that are left this season, the pressure is heaped firmly onto ourselves. We have to try to win all our games and Celtic's consistency adds to that."