Scottish Premiership: Hearts and Boyce put dagger in Rangers’ title bid | Football

Liam Boyce wrecked Steven Gerrard’s Rangers milestone as the new Hearts striker’s debut goal sealed a 2-1 win at Tynecastle.

Ryan Kent thought he had got the party started for Gerrard on his 100th game in charge of the club with an opener just after half-time.But it was Hearts’ manager, Daniel Stendel, who was left smiling at the end as he finally claimed his first Premiership victory at the seventh attempt.

First the new captain, Steven Naismith, punished his old side as he levelled and Boyce then sealed a dream 24 hours since completing his £150,000 move from Burton with the winner.

The defeat was a bitter blow for Rangers’ title hopes as they dropped five points behind Celtic, albeit still with one game in hand.

Celtic’s 3-0 win over Ross County at Parkhead on Saturday saw the French striker Odsonne Édouard, having had to shrug off a toe complaint, come off the bench to net a quick second-half double after Callum McGregor had scored from the spot before the break.

Neil Lennon was without Kristoffer Ajer, Jeremie Frimpong, Mohamed Elyounoussi, Hatem Abd Elhamed and Nir Bitton through various injuries and Ryan Christie was serving the last of a three-match ban.

“Hopefully Kris Ajer will train on Monday and obviously Ryan Christie’s suspension is up, so he’s back,” Lennon told Celtic TV, looking forward to his side’s match against St Johnstone at McDiarmid Park on Wednesday night. “That’s two really important players back. We are not too sure how long Jeremie is going to be out for but Elyounoussi should be fit for the end of the month.

“We haven’t got too long to get two or three more back in and, with it being the last week of the transfer window, we may look to bring one more in.

“It was a very important win against Ross County and a clean sheet. At times in the first half we were a little bit open to the counter-attack but we tidied that up, the second-half performance was good and we could have won by more.”