Two own goals from McCart as Rangers beat Hearts at Tynecastle

Rangers had the fortune of two own-goals as they bounced back to winning ways with a victory over Hearts at Tynecastle.

The Ibrox side returned to action for the first time since their defeat to Championship side Queen’s Park in the Scottish Cup last week.

And they took all three points from Edinburgh in Sunday’s Premiership clash thanks to an own-goal brace by Jamie McCart and a goal from Vaclav Cerny.

Philippe Clement’s men remain isolated in second place as they move to 13 points behind league leaders Celtic and 18 ahead of third-placed Aberdeen.

The result is the Jambos’ first loss of 2025 after an eight-game unbeaten run going back to the 2-1 defeat to Hibs on Boxing Day.

Hearts had the best of the chances in the first half, with Lawrence Shankland and Elton Kabangu both coming close and Jack Butland producing a string of good saves.

However, it was Rangers who took the lead through an own goal by McCart on the 20th minute before they had even had a shot on target.

Ianis Hagi drilled the ball across the face of the goal before the Hearts defender turned it into his own net to put the visitors 1-0 up.

Rangers had a couple of chances to double their lead towards the end of the half with Cerny and Nico Raskin both forcing good saves from Craig Gordon.

But Neil Critchley would have been disappointed to be going into the break a goal down after a strong first-half performance by his side.

And they got themselves level just four minutes after the restart when Michael Steinwender marked his first Tynecastle start with a goal.

The Austrian defender rose highest to connect with a James Penrice cross and head past Butland to make it 1-1.

Rangers had to weather a bit of a storm after that before they got themselves back in front on the hour mark against the run of play.

Hearts had a penalty claim waved away before Rangers broke up the park in a quick counterattack.

Cerny was quickest to react to a deflected shot by Hamza Igamane and the Czech winger fired past Gordon to put Clement’s men 2-1 in front.

And they had the three points all-but secured around ten minutes later when McCart scored his second own goal of the game following pressure from Cyriel Dessers to make it 3-1.

The Nigeria forward was bearing down on Gordon’s goal when McCart threw out a leg in an attempt to clear but only succeeded in turning the ball into his own net again.

The game ended 3-1 as Rangers extend their five-year unbeaten run against Hearts.