Hearts 2-2 Rangers: Olwethu Makhanya's late equaliser rescues draw on Derek McInnes' Tynecastle return
Report as Rangers score late to draw 2-2 with Hearts; Kevin Kelsy opened the scoring for Rangers; goals from Claudio Braga and Calvin Miller gave Hearts the lead; Olwethu Makhanya headed in to rescue a point with Dujon Sterling missing a brilliant chance to snatch a win
The Gers boss was loudly booed by the home support as he emerged from the tunnel for his first match back in Gorgie since leaving for Ibrox in June, just weeks after the Edinburgh side were pipped to the Premiership title.
But his team silenced a pumped-up home crowd when Kevin Kelsy scored a 16th-minute opener following a lapse from Laurent Mendy.
Hearts turned the game round with goals from Claudio Braga and Calvin Miller early in the second half. But Olwethu Makhanya levelled the game with an 89th-minute header.
Dujon Sterling had a brilliant chance to be Rangers' hero in the dying seconds, only to chest the ball straight to Hearts 'keeper Beau Reus.
Rangers remain four points behind Celtic, who drew with Dundee United, and four above Hearts.
2: CHANCE! Kerjota sends in a cross and Fagan-Walcott is just inches from getting his head to it.
11: CHANCE! Minsu sends in a cross as Rangers start to find a way into the game, Raskin gets to it but Hearts clear.
16: GOAL RANGERS! Rangers jump on slack Hearts play. Naderi slips a pass to Kelsy to finish past Reus.
26: SAVE! Kerjota has a shot blocked with Miller's follow-up saved by Pandur.
27: CHANCE! A rash challenge from Fernandez sees Hearts with a free-kick in a dangerous area. Miller whips it in, but Mendy heads over the bar.
48: GOAL HEARTS! Rangers are punished for conceding another free-kick and Braga is the one to get it over the line.
57: GOAL HEARTS! Braga drives into the Rangers box and his deflected strike falls to Miller to smash in.
68: SAVE! Kelsy's header reaches Bouanani, who curls an effort towards goal. It's saved by Reus.
76: SAVE! Pandur is called into action again as Braga is given so much space to shoot from distance.
79: SAVE! Neil whips a shot to the far post, which is stopped by Reus.
83: WIDE! Hearts break but Williams sends fires wide from distance. What a chance to wrap things up.
89: GOAL RANGERS! Makhanya heads in from Bouanini's free-kick to pull level heading into stoppage time.
90+4: CHANCE! Curtis sends in the cross to Sterling who looks certain to knock in a winning goal only to hand Reus a simple save.
Sky Sports' Kris Boyd at Tynecastle Park:
"Rangers will actually be delighted to leave here with a point tonight.
"Hearts, the amount of games they've had, running on empty, the amount of injuries they've got, they were the better team tonight and that would be worrying.
"Rangers will leave here with a point and I'd be absolutely delighted that they've got that point.
"I saw a team out there tonight, Hearts, that have got a style of play. There's nothing wrong with it, but when it doesn't work, you're going to be criticised.
"You see that team that was going long, trying to play for second balls, get up on that. When it doesn't work, it looks so disjointed. Towards the end for Rangers got that equaliser and then they had the chance to win it, but they didn't deserve that tonight.
"They wouldn't have deserved the three points. Hearts were by far the team who you felt as if were in control of the game of football, looked as if it was a team that had been coached in terms of patterns of play, especially the second half.
"Rangers really struggled to deal with Hearts. Emmanuel Fernandez, he looked so at unease with the Hearts attacking players. The amount of times that he caused problems for his own teammates, again.
"I'll say it, Rangers have stolen a point here tonight. They've stolen a point because, especially that second half, it's got to be better."
What the result means and next fixtures...
Topics in this story
Gathered from external sources. Rights to this text belong to whoever originally published it.