Walker Vital To Structure

Hearts manager Craig Levein pointed to the loss of Jamie Walker as the critical point on Saturday that ended with Rangers heading along the M8 with a 3-1 win and all three points to enjoy. Not a bad result for Rangers in front of 33,000 fans in the week that Pedro Caixinha was dismissed as manager. A Kyle Lafferty free-kick put Hearts in front in the first half, but two goals from Kenny Miller and a third from Josh Windass - the second two coming after Walker’s injury - earned the visitors the win.

(c) Ian Rutherford/PA Wire/PA Images

After the game, Levein said that Walker was crucial to the system employed by Hearts, and his depleted side were unable to cope as he had nobody to call upon due injury crisis. Levein went on: "I’m happy at a lot of the things we did in the first half, and for the first hour in general. The tail end of the game wasn’t good at all. I thought Kyle’s free kick was excellent, and we should have another goal or two to go along with it.  Once Jamie Walker went off, the whole system just fell apart and I put it solely down to that. We need Jamie to make that particular system work, and as we were already short in midfield, it made it even more difficult for us."

The Hearts manager confirmed that Walker could not be considered available for selection for at least the next few weeks.  This would require some players being asked to plays out of position.  However, Levein also confirmed that he would not be checking out the free agent market as he hoped to have a full squad again within a couple of weeks. He said: "Jamie has a hamstring injury, the damage of which I don’t yet know the extent.  He’ll definitely be out for the next couple of weeks, at least. I haven’t considered looking at the free agent market, though.  In a few weeks we’ll have all the players back, so there’s no point signing an out of contract player that will take a month to gain match fitness. We’ll just have to play players out of position in the meantime, and try to make us difficult to beat."