Their talisman, one Alastair McCoist, looks to have finally lost his battle to feature in the World Cup, having been left out of the Scotland squad which will soon fly off to America for final preparations.A few years back I remember the cheeky smiling one withdrawing from a Scotland friendly because he was “mentally bruised” after losing a Scottish Cup tie. I think he could well be mentally broken by this late blow from Craig Brown.Paul Gascoigne, meanwhile, is still sorely missed at Ibrox and Brian Laudrup has fallen out with the club on the eve of his departure to Chelsea.With all this turmoil Hearts may well just have the edge in this one and it could leave Rangers without any silverware for the first year since Boy George was the new kid on the block.For years the Scottish press have bemoaned the standard of the game because no teams were nearly strong enough to challenge Rangers. They will be fresh, focused and perfectly prepared for the last game of the season this time, and the spectre that has haunted the club for a decade could be banished for good.Rangers, on the other hand, have a few more recent ghosts to exorcise. Even though they stuttered in the run-up, memorably (for me anyway) losing against Kilmarnock at home in the second to last game of the season, they still had hopes of gaining that record 10th championship in a row up until the last moment.This tortuous run-in caused more than the obvious psychological damage.

While challenging for the league they also managed to produce a number of talented home-grown players. With Neil McCann and David Weir they have begun to mine a seam that many up here thought had offered up its last nuggets.Hearts and their fans only now appear to have almost fully recovered from the trauma of their last serious assault on the championship. In 1988 they lost the last game of the season to an inferior Dundee side, conceding two late goals, and so handed Celtic the title on a plate.This season title hopes had evaporated a month earlier and since then they have been able to coast along, concentrating their thoughts on the Cup final instead This may well be their biggest advantage today. Jim Jeffries, their manager, kept his side up alongside the Old Firm for 90 per cent of the season, using a fraction of the resources. For the first time in a decade, the effortless domination of the Glasgow giants was seriously challenged.The Tynecastle club’s progress has been the healthiest aspect in the whole of the Scottish game this year.

In this climate Craig Brown had better not lead Scotland in a successful World Cup campaign or he will be sacked before the end of June.Back in domestic reality Hearts have in many ways provided the story of the 1997-98 season. Amazingly, some of the Ibrox faithful have branded him a failure because they were pipped at the post this time. Over in the east end, Celtic fans are almost in mourning after this season’s championship and Coca-Cola Cup double. This follows the departure in acrimonious circumstances of their manager, Wim Jansen. So, just days after one of the most important and satisfying titles in the club’s history, fans are calling for the resignation of the managing director, Fergus McCann, and the general manager, Jock Brown, because of their part in the Dutchman’s departure.
Down at the bottom, however, Alex McLeish, the new manager of relegated Hibernian, was being feted as a hero after his team had drawn their last game of the season against the mighty Kilmarnock. If they do beat Hearts and win the Scottish Cup at Parkhead, it will be a fitting finale to Walter Smith’s reign at Ibrox. Having recently steered the club to a record-equalling nine championships in a row, helped the club to previously unimagined economic strengths and coaxed top international stars from all over the world to come to Glasgow, he has decided to quit.

TODAY Rangers have the chance to salvage something from the most confusing season in living memory. Taking it up passing the two pole, she still had to be punched out vigorously by Kieren Fallon to beat Genoa by three and a half lengths to justify favouritism.The winner’s full-sister Yashmak, who won this race 12 months ago, went on to finish fourth to stablemate Reams of Verse in the Oaks, and Jibe is a 16-1 shot for the second fillies’ Classic with William Hill, who quote Cecil’s Musidora runner-up Midnight Line, the likely mount of Fallon, at 3-1.Grant Pritchard-Gordon, racing manager to Jibe’s owner Prince Khalid Abdullah, explained that discussions will take place before it is decided which of the Prince’s fillies – he also owns Cheshire Oaks winner High And Low and Lingfield Oaks Trial heroine Bristol Channel – runs at Epsom.”We have to talk to the owner, who has had the privilege of winning three Oaks trials,” he said.”With a filly as well bred as this, you want to give her every chance to fulfil her potential but whether she is good enough I don’t know.”Pritchard-Gordon put Jibe’s 1000 Guineas disappointment down to one factor, an inadequate trip.”She had been working well and the stable was in form but in retrospect she was at the wrong distance,” he added.Cecil saddled a rare 33-1 chance for the Crookham Maiden Stakes in the form of Prince Khalid’s Eaton Square.The Nureyev colt, the mount of Tony McGlone, was reckoned inferior to stablemate and fellow debutant On The Ridge but produced a strong run down the stands’ side.. But, her nets cast in the easier waters of the Listed Newbury Trial Stakes, she justified odds-on favouritism to rekindle hopes she might be up to beating the best.
fourth of the quintet for Kieren Fallon as Genoa cut out the running, she moved towards the lead with three furlongs of the 10 to travel. Racing

JIBE entered the picture for the Oaks at Epsom on 5 June after effecting repairs to a damaged reputation at Newbury yesterday. Two spring defeats at Newmarket – a third in the Nell Gwyn Stakes and a 1,000 Guineas eighth – appeared to have sunk the reputation of Henry Cecil’s filly as a Classic prospect.