Glasgow Rangers of Scotland midfielder, Joseph Ayodele (Joe) Aribo scored for the second straight weekend running and helped his side snatch an away win, with Calvin Bassey Ughelumba also on from the start, but Leon Aderemi Balogun remains out, sportsdayonline.com reports.
While Balogun continues recuperating from a recent injury that has paved the way for Bassey to cement his spot in the squad, early goals from Aribo and Alfredo Morelos gave Rangers a 2-0 win at Hearts, who lost at Tynecastle for the first time this season.
Hearts, who had won five and drawn three of their home league games before the lunchtime kick-off, flew out of the blocks and could have led inside two minutes through Liam Boyce’s lob, but from Rangers’ first attack after nine minutes Morelos fired home Fashion Sakala’s cutback – and they never looked back.
Hearts had not trailed at Tynecastle for a single minute this season and were left stunned as Aribo, who later got a yellow card, quickly made it two, after taking down a long Connor Goldson pass before firing home a powerful finish past Craig Gordon with 13 minutes played.
The hosts struggled to regain their momentum but rallied after half-time, striking the bar twice and watching on as Liam Boyce missing a gilt-edged chance, before Josh Ginnelly wasted any realistic hopes of a comeback with a stupid second yellow card for squaring up to Borna Barisic.
A drop of the shoulder and turn was enough to get Kent away from Taylor Moore and although his cross was too high for Morelos, Sakala picked up the pieces and found the Colombian six yards out for him to bury the ball into the far corner.
Hearts were left reeling when that strike turned into a quickfire double four minutes later, as Aribo latched onto Goldson’s driven long ball with a sensational touch, before beating Gordon with a similarly emphatic finish.
The hosts had not trailed at Tynecastle for a single minute in the league but now had a two-goal deficit to contend, and struggled to find a way through a Rangers side now content to remain compact.
Boyce did pull another strong save from McGregor after getting down the outside of Bassey, but they struggled to wrestle back their early momentum before the break, and after it took eight minutes to hit the woodwork – with a big slice of help from Bassey himself.
The makeshift centre-back slid in to meet Ginnelly’s driven low cross from the right and diverted it onto his own crossbar, before Rangers missed two chances to add to their lead as Scott Arfield and Sakala were both kept out by Gordon.
Arfield had the keeper beaten moments later but with the goal at his mercy from Morelos’ pull-back, fired wide with a shocking miss, before Boyce came close to rivalling him with a similar shank from eight yards, firing over the bar from Gary Mackay-Stevens’ delivery.
With time running out, Stephen Kingsley ratted the woodwork from distance again from a sensational free-kick before Ginnelly’s brainless decision to weigh into a dispute between Borna Barisic and Cameron Devlin, and was shown his marching orders for a second yellow card which effectively ended any hopes of a home comeback.
Ben Woodburn and Boyce forced late saves out of McGregor as Hearts continued to rally, but the game was already out of reach – and Rangers’ lead at the top of the table extended to seven points.
