Hearts midfielder Jorge Grant insists the Edinburgh side believe they can beat Rangers despite latest loss

Hearts midfielder Jorge Grant insists they do not lack the belief to beat Rangers as he outlined the blueprint for improving results against Philippe Clement’s side.

Steven Naismith’s men suffered a fifth defeat against Rangers this season when they went down 2-0 in the Scottish Gas Scottish Cup semi-finals on Sunday.

Their League Cup run also came unstuck against Rangers at Hampden and Hearts will face the prospect of suffering an unprecedented sixth defeat of the season against the Light Blues on May 18.

Hearts have taken six points off Celtic this season and beaten every other side in the cinch Premiership and Grant claims there is no psychological barrier to doing the same against Rangers.

Grant said: “There is a belief every time we go out on the pitch. I think we are a good team, so we always have belief going into games and that was no different.

“We wanted to start fast and we didn’t do that. Unfortunately we have given them a goal again like we did the last time. It probably put us on the back foot a little bit.

“I thought we responded well but the second half got a bit end to end, especially towards the end.

“I thought we did well at times, played our stuff, but it was disappointing with the goals.”

Cyriel Dessers gave Rangers a fifth-minute lead before wrapping up the contest with 12 minutes left.

The early blow was a familiar story. Hearts went to Ibrox in February on the back of an eight-match winning streak and 12-game unbeaten run, but Mohamed Diomande put the hosts on their way to a 5-0 victory with a second-minute strike.

When asked how they can bridge the gap, Grant said: “We have got to start better, number one. That’s probably what has killed us again, and it killed us when we played them the last time away from home as well. So, starting better will help us.

“I think we showed our quality at times as well so we know we can compete with them, it’s just those little moments that we need to tighten up on.

“We wanted to put them under pressure, especially coming out second half, and we did that. But it was just that final bit – that final pass, that final shot – that we didn’t quite get right.

“We work a lot on it in training so it’s something we know we can do and we know we can bring it into games. That just wasn’t the day that we did that.”