Gary Mackay: Pressure all on Rangers for Scottish Cup tie at Hearts

The pressure is all on Rangers at Tynecastle this weekend.

They are a bigger club than Hearts, they have more money to spend and it looks like the Scottish Cup could be their last chance of a trophy this season. That means they need a result in this quarter-final.

For Hearts, the boot is on the other foot and they are the underdogs. That might suit them but it certainly won’t last long. The next game is away at Hibs a few days later and the pressure is then back on us because we are running out of games to make sure we stay in the top flight.

The match at St Mirren being postponed last Friday night allowed Hamilton to gain another point on us. We simply can’t allow them or St Mirren to pull any further away.

Hearts now need to learn to get victories, whether that is in the cup to lift us and kick us forward, or in the league. Draws aren’t going to be good enough in any way and nobody should be under the mistaken impression that they are.

We beat Rangers a few weeks ago at a packed Tynecastle so those memories will be fresh and will hopefully help us this time round. I hope the stadium is as packed this time as well.

I have heard some grumblings from fans about the price of tickets. You want the same atmopshere we had in the league fixture so I hope we haven’t overlooked that with the pricing system for this game.

If Tynecastle is rocking, then Hearts will have a far better chance of putting on the same kind of performance as they did last time Rangers were in town.

Friday’s call-off was actually helpful in regard to getting Liam Boyce fit and ready for the final few weeks of the campaign. He has become an important player since coming back north from Burton Albion. You have to hope the weekend without a match gives him enough time to recover from illness along with Toby Sibbick.

Two games in four days means the manager has big decisions to make regarding who plays and when. Football is always about the next game and, for Hearts, that is Rangers. It would be a real morale boost if we could win that game and get into the semi-finals of the cup.

However, there is absolutely no doubt that the Rangers match still pales into insignificance because of the game on Tuesday. That isn’t just because it’s Hibs.

Derbies are important at any time but this is a league game and, right now, that is where our bread and butter is. We have to stay up.

Would Hearts fans take winning the Scottish Cup and being relegated? For the long-term future of the football club, that would not be helpful at all.

We hoped that beating Rangers in the league a few weeks ago would help us kick on, but that hasn’t happened. That doesn’t mean we can’t beat Rangers again and take inspiration from it.