Rangers out to apply pressure as Hearts aim to 'annoy'

Rangers head coach Danny Rohl views a win over Heart of Midlothian as a chance to put real pressure on the long-time Scottish Premiership leaders. Pacesetting counterpart Derek McInnes insists it is not a must-win for his own side.

Whatever the perspective of the rival camps, with only five points separating the sides sitting first and second in the table, Sunday's meeting at Ibrox could be a pivotal moment in the title race.

Especially with Rangers having conceding a later leveller away to 10-man Motherwell on Wednesday, 24 hours after Hearts also scored in the final minutes to secure a crucial derby win over Hibernian to consolidate their lead.

Celtic's own late show to secure three points at home to Livingston means the third-top reigning champions are still breathing down the necks of the top two in what is a three-horse race for silverware.

As he prepares his side for Hearts' arrival in Govan, Rohl preferred to look at the bigger picture - and the ground made up on the leaders since his appointment.

The Ibrox side's form since the German's arrival in October has narrowed the gap to the top by eight points from being 13 behind.

Now the chance is there for a statement home win and Rohl pondered whether making more inroads would have a psychological effect on McInnes' team.

"We have a big opportunity to close the gap from 13 points to 2 points - and it's a great opportunity," he said.

"Generally, it's about consistency, to take consistently three points in a row, again and again and again, and I think in the last couple of weeks we did really well at this.

"I think it's also a big game to take the three points, but I think it's also for Hearts.

"If you are 13 points ahead of a club and you drop maybe to two points, maybe there's also pressure on them. "

If McInnes was already feeling some of that pressure ahead of the game, he certainly was not showing it as he claimed his side's sustained presence at the top of the league was getting a few backs up.

"From the outset, it was people looking in from September when we went top of the league, good old Hearts, top of the league in September, good on them, October, November, still got a lot of plaudits," he said.

"Now that we're there, I think we're actually starting to annoy a few people. I think a lot of people naturally would have thought we'd have fell away by now, which is fine. I get that and I understand it.

"We are overachieving. They're doing so well to maintain it. I'm just enjoying where we are.

"Obviously, there's big challenges ahead of us, but I don't see anybody in my dressing room not enjoying it. We've just got to try and keep it going."

While a win would open a significant gap on Rangers again, McInnes insisted nothing will be decided this weekend.

"Win, lose or draw, for me, it doesn't decide anything on Sunday," he said. "That's the way we would look at it.

"I think our away record has been so strong this season that backs what I'm saying up - that we go and try and win every game if we can.

"We understand a lot of games are more difficult than others. And this is in that bracket, of course."

McInnes was more forthcoming, although the continued absence of captain Lawrence Shankland, midfielders Cammy Devlin and Calem Nieuwenhof, plus defender Stephen Kingsley, for about five weeks, will have come as no surprise.

Despite missing key personnel, a win on Sunday would mean Hearts will have achieved a more modest target set by their head coach, who hopes the stakes continue to get bigger for his side.

"I want us to be still in the running when it comes to the post-split fixtures," he said, looking forward to the final five games involving the top six sides.

"Our first port of call at the start of the season, when we had our last meeting before the Aberdeen game, the first game, it was 'can we get 18 wins as quickly as possible?' and I always feel 18 wins will get you European football.

"We're one win shy of that, but obviously, having been where we have been for so long now, those kind of sights get changed and you look for a bit more.

"We just want to be there as long as we can. We've just got to try and keep doing what we're doing."

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