Jamie Hamill Rangers stick from his MATES after netting Ibrox winner as he hopes for Hearts deja vu

Jamie Hamill remembers copping an earful of abuse from his Bluenose buddies when he fired Hearts to their last top-flight win at Ibrox.

But the former Tynecastle favourite admits his old side have gone far too long without giving the Rangers faithful something to scream and shout about. It’s 12 years since Hamill wheeled away to celebrate in front of the Broomloan Road end as he tucked home the rebound after having a penalty saved by Allan McGregor.

That moment of Jambos joy was made all the sweeter for the Hearts midfielder as he spotted his miserable mates going tonto in the home end. But since then, it’s been a long list of depressing visits along the M8 for the Gorgie support, with their only other victory coming in 2014 when both teams were stuck in the Championship. Even at home, it’s now four seasons since Hearts were last able to record some capital gains against Gers.

The two teams have met a total of 12 times at Ibrox, Tynecastle and Hampden in the period since that 2020 Scottish Cup quarter-final loss, with the Jambos managing only a couple of draws while slumping to a staggering aggregate score of 29-6.

It’s a situation that has puzzled Hearts CEO Andrew McKinlay, who last year lamented: “We should be performing better when we play the [Old Firm], Rangers in particular. I’ve seen us have good performances against Celtic. But I haven’t seen us do that against Rangers and I don’t know why. We don’t seem to lay a glove on Rangers for some bizarre reason and we have to start doing that.”

Hamill couldn’t agree more - and he hopes Saturday’s showdown between the teams in Glasgow will once again have the Rangers faithful ranting. He told Record Sport: “Scoring the winner at Ibrox is obviously a special memory for