Neil Critchley issues Rangers warning to Hearts stars as he reveals key factor in bid to end hoodoo

Neil Critchley reckons Hearts can feed off the energy of the Tynecastle crowd to inflict another damaging afternoon on Rangers as they look to record their first win over the Light Blues since 2019.

The Jambos haven’t beaten the Ibrox side for five years - going back 17 matches. But on the back of an eight-game unbeaten run which has seen them rise to seventh in the Premiership and book a Scottish Cup quarter final spot, expectations have risen.

Rangers head to Gorgie on the back of one of the worst results in their history after being dumped out the cup by Queen’s Park. That’s ramped the pressure up on Philippe Clement and his players. And Critchley said: “We're in good form. We can go into the game with a positive feeling, knowing that we face good players, good opponents, difficult challenge but it's a great game for us to look forward to. Hopefully we can use the energy of the crowd and feed off their passion and do everything we can to keep our unbeaten run going.

“You know you're going to have to be good without the ball because they've got very good technical players, intelligent players who know how to handle the ball and they're used to playing in big games, with big expectations. They're used to playing under this type of pressure. We know we have to be well organised, good without the ball. But also, again, we want to try and take the game to the opponent.”

Rangers may be rocking. But Critchley has warned his players to beware the wounded animal on Sunday. Asked if it makes their task tougher, he said: “We'll find out at 12 o'clock on Sunday. Who knows? We'll see by how they play the game.

“But our concentration has just been on us and how we prepare and how we want to play. That's my main focus. We always