Cyriel Dessers capped off a fine personal week by scoring the winner as Rangers laboured painfully to a 1-0 William Hill Premiership win over Hearts at Ibrox.
The much-maligned striker notched in the 2-1 Premier Sports Cup semi-final win over Motherwell last Sunday and again in the deserved 1-1 Europa League draw at Olympiacos in Greece on Thursday night.
And he got the home side off to the perfect start when he prodded in from close range after five minutes for his 10th goal of the season, but Philippe Clement’s side failed to kick on.
Hearts striker Kenneth Vargas missed a couple of good chances and Ibrox became increasingly racked with tension during the nervy second half which had the home fans at times groaning in frustration at another poor performance.
The Light Blues are nine points behind leaders Celtic and Aberdeen going into November’s international break and there is still plenty to fix, while Hearts are second bottom, one point ahead of Edinburgh rivals Hibernian.
The Tynecastle side went into the game on the back of a 2-0 defeat by German side Heidenheim in the UEFA Conference League on Thursday night, and having last won at Ibrox 10 years ago when both clubs were in the Championship.
And the quest to amend that poor record suffered an early blow.
After a perfectly-observed minute’s silence to commemorate Remembrance Sunday, Dessers gave the home side an early lead.
A flowing move involving Nico Raskin, Jefte and Nedim Bajrami ended with the ball speeding across the visiting area and skipper James Tavernier, back in the side after being dropped in Athens, drove towards goal with Dessers helping the ball over the line from close range.
The Nigeria striker then had two efforts which were less successful, a blocked drive and a chip which went wide.
Hearts, with Daniel Oyegoke, Kye Rowles, Cammy Devlin and Vargas back in the side, began to play but Rangers midfielder Mohamed Diomande drove wide from the edge of the box on the half-hour mark before Hearts goalkeeper Craig Gordon beat away a powerful drive from Vaclav Cerny after Connor Barron had sent him clear on a counter-attack.
However, the Gorgie outfit should have levelled in the 35th minute when Gers defender John Souttar’s short back-pass to Butland was picked by Vargas, but the Gers keeper used his leg to clear the ball.
Vargas then cracked a post with a shot in the first minute of the second half after the Rangers defence was split wide open by skipper Lawrence Shankland’s pass and only had Butland to beat.
Rangers had lost tempo and drive, and progress up the pitch was often laboured, although Tavernier had two goal-bound drives blocked by Hearts defenders.
In the 65th minute, Clement replaced his captain with Neysharo Kasanwirjo and there were boos when popular centre midfielder Connor Barron was taken off for Dujon Sterling.
For Hearts, Yan Dhanda and Beni Baningime took over from Alan Forrest and Malachi Boateng, and within minutes Baningime sent a curling shot just past Butland’s right-hand post.
Rangers at last broke with purpose in the 77th minute and Gordon saved Bajrami’s drive after he played a wall pass with Cerny.
However, there still slack passes and indecision although in the 89th minute, Kasanwirjo hit the crossbar from a cut-back from Danilo, who had replaced Dessers.
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