Rangers 0 Hearts 2: Martin goes beyond the point of no return as McInnes' men take deserved three points

Some might say it came as far back as the visit of Dundee early last month when it took a last-gasp penalty to stop Steven Pressley’s relegation-threatened side walking away with a deserved win. 

There’s an argument it might have happened amid the humiliation and embarrassment of Club Brugge’s six-goal walk in the park in the second leg of the Champions League qualifying play-off.

There is no question now, though, that Russell Martin is beyond the point of no return as Rangers head coach. His personal crossing of the Rubicon came to pass, without any semblance of doubt or debate, midway through the first half of this loss to a Hearts team showing how to deal with the teething problems of bonding together new players and a new manager and still get results. In the 22nd minute, to be precise.

There he was, down on his hunkers at the edge of the technical area, sipping on a bottle of water. Lawrence Shankland had just scored the opener for Hearts, proving, as many others have done this term, that Rangers are unbelievably vulnerable on the counter-attack and simply cannot defend.

All around the ground, supporters chanted the name of frozen-out midfielder Nico Raskin, left out of the squad despite behind-the-scenes talks earlier in the week aimed at finding a resolution to whatever has happened between him and the boss.

The Belgian was in the stand taking in the action. Sit tight and it surely won’t be long until he is back in the team under a different manager.

Moments earlier, those punters had been bellowing ‘Martin, Martin, Get To F***’. And they would bellow it again and again as the game went on — never louder than in the 82nd minute when Shankland stepped up for the penalty-kick that led to the goal, scored from the rebound after a Jack Butland save, that killed this affair stone-dead.

Eventually, no matter how much they want this guy’s appointment to prove some kind of masterstroke carried out against the grain, the club’s executive and the US-based ownership team are going to have to listen.

They are going to have to realise and accept that pretty much no one other than them sees any further point in Martin, an unwanted appointment among the rank and file to begin with, to be in the building. He has to be sacked.

This entire game was an insult to all those who pay good money for their season books at Ibrox. In many ways, it was apposite that a first Ibrox defeat to Hearts in 11 years should come at the hands of a manager in Derek McInnes that the club were on the brink of appointing years ago and a player in Shankland who they could easily have signed for nothing in the summer.

Instead, they’ve inexplicably committed £10million to a bloke in Youssef Chermiti, anonymous here after coming off the bench to replace Jayden Meghoma, who has barely played first-team football and doesn’t score.

The atmosphere at Ibrox under dark clouds and gloom yesterday was fevered, toxic, explosive. Call it what you want. It certainly wasn’t good and it’s not something that is going to go away until Martin has.

People know what they are watching. And they know, 12 competitive games into the former Norwich and Southampton boss’ reign, that there are no signs of it getting any better.

When Shankland broke the deadlock, Hearts had been in control of the game. Right from the kick-off. Within five minutes, Craig Halkett had put a header wide and Shankland had taken a crack at goal from distance.

They travelled to Ibrox believing they could win. As any team should — because this Rangers team are an absolute disgrace given the money invested in them, with even Martin appearing to have lost faith in so many of his new arrivals along with Raskin.

Look at yesterday’s line-up. Max Aarons, Joe Rothwell and Oliver Antman all on the bench. At half-time, Nasser Djiga, a repeated bombscare at the back, finally got taken out of his misery, not before time, when being replaced by Derek Cornelius.

Mikey Moore went off for Antman at the break as well. No offence to the lad, but he just doesn’t look ready for this. Answers on a postcard, meanwhile, over what has happened to Manny Fernandez, nowhere to be seen despite costing more than £2million from Peterborough United.

Even the body language was bizarre before kick-off. Hearts walked out on their own behind the officiating team. Celtic fans are planning a late entry to the stadium at Kilmarnock on Sunday in protest at the way their club is being run. Were Rangers players doing the same? Listen, anything feels possible during this nutty, surreal powderkeg of a campaign.

You want evidence? What about jubilant Hearts fans jumping around and chanting the name of infamous adult actress Bonnie Blue during the second period?

She turned up outside the ground in a bus before kick-off. No cheap jokes, please, about Rangers not even being able to score with her. Even though they carry a real semblance of truth.

Rangers did have chances during the second half of this game. Antman saw a shot saved with Thelo Aasgaard having an effort blocked. Djeidi Gassama hit a post. Cornelius had the ball in the net on 67 minutes, but it was disallowed for an Aasgaard foul on Hearts’ new keeper Alexander Schwolow.

It’s all irrelevant, though. Rangers are rank. Martin is a dead duck. Hearts deserved this and deserve credit for a win that could have been even more emphatic had substitute Tomas Magnusson’s stoppage-time effort not hit the upright.

Hearts’ showed up just how awful Rangers are in technicolour.

There were claims for handball as Shankland collected the ball in the centre of the field — later dispelled by a VAR check — and lobbed a long pass forward to Claudio Braga.

The Portuguese controlled it nicely and faced up to the backtracking John Souttar, playing a lovely reverse pass that returned possession to Shankland on the left-hand side of the home area.

It is worth stating at this point that the Hearts captain had been allowed to make a largely untracked run half the length of the field. He’s the most dangerous player in the Hearts team, which he then exhibited in quite some style by sending a lovely angled effort past Jack Butland and in at the far post.

Fair play to him for such excellent technique, but what on earth was the Rangers defence up to? Same as usual, regular attendees at their matches might observe.

It was then all over bar the shouting when, after Harry Milne had been fouled by Mohamed Diomande, Shankland scored from the rebound after seeing his initial spot-kick saved low by Butland.

After that, it was all about Rangers fans making it absolutely crystal-clear what has to happened at their club next.

Lusty chants told Martin he’s ‘getting sacked in the morning’. The x-rated version — with, ultimately, the same message — got yet another airing.

The black humour had already been pouring from the stands like a tsunami. When he was scribbling in a notepad early in the second period, one punter screamed: ‘Make that yer resignation letter, Martin’.

A little later, another roared: ‘Panto season’s coming up. Get a job there’.

It’s good to see Rangers fans haven’t lost all sense of jollity, but what’s going on under Martin really is no laughing matter. His goose is cooked. It’s never going to work out for him in Glasgow. His team is a shambles. It’s over. Enough’s enough.

Rangers (4-2-3-1): Butland; Tavernier, Djiga (Cornelius 46), Souttar, Meghoma (Chermiti 67); Diomande, Barron (Rothwell 56 (Bajrami 77); Moore (Antman 46), Aasgaard, Gassama; Miovski. Booked: Tavernier, Souttar.

Hearts (4-4-2): Schwolow; Milne, Halkett, Findlay, Kingsley (McCart 77); McEntee (Steinwender 62), Baningime, Devlin, Kyziridis (Magnusson 77); Shankland (Spittal 90), Braga (Kabangu 77). Booked: Findlay.

Referee: Steven McLean. Attendance: 50,697.