Mark Hateley turns Rangers cheerleader for Antonio Colak as he insists he has 'earned' spot ahead of Alfredo Morelos

Alfredo Morelos has hammered Hearts over the past four years and with a trip to Tynecastle looming the Rangers striker will be champing at the bit to get at them again.

But Mark Hateley reckons the Colombian will have to settle for being unleashed from the bench at some point on Saturday as Giovanni van Bronckhorst can’t afford to drop Antonio Colak for a match that could see the Ibrox side go back to the top of the Premiership, even if only for a couple of hours.

Celtic’s unexpected defeat to St Mirren last time out reduced their lead to just two points and gave their rivals a timely boost but Hateley knows that will count for nothing if they don’t take care of their own business in the lunch time kick-off in the capital before Ange Postecoglou’s men tackle Motherwell.The Rangers nine-in-a-row legend knows enough about Morelos’ record against the Jambos to accept he has a case for starting.

Since October 2018, Morelos has played against Hearts eight times and scored nine goals. In fact, he’s failed to hit the net in only one of those matches.

But Hateley insists van Bronckhorst has to stick with Colak, whose double against Dundee United in Gers’ last outing took his goal tally to nine in 12 starts since signing in the summer. The former England striker said: “Funnily enough, I had a great record against Hearts as well at one point. I went through a spell of scoring every time I played them. I think I got 11 in seven games.

“You sometimes had clubs that for one reason or another you just seemed to do well against. You looked forward to playing against them and for me, Hearts was one of them, as I suspect they are for Alfredo if he has a good scoring record against them.

“As a striker, I always had that in-built