Rangers Women suffered a costly setback in the SWPL on Sunday as Hearts held off a late comeback to win 3–2 at the Oriam, a result that drops Leanne Crichton’s side to fifth and leaves them nine points behind league leaders Glasgow City.
The defeat also marks Rangers third loss in four league matches and once again raised familiar questions about consistency and game control.
The game was effectively shaped in the first half. Rangers were second-best across key moments, slow to react in transition and loose defensively at set plays, areas the coaching staff and squad openly admit have been worked on repeatedly.
Hearts punished the lapses. Georgia Timms struck twice, first from the spot, before Georgia Hunter made it 3–0 with a powerful finish.
At that stage, Rangers looked overwhelmed, disorganised and too easily played through.
After the match, captain Nicola Docherty summed up the mood with one word: frustration.
She said to Rangers TV post-match: “We’re in there right now scratching our heads.
“The first half was really, really poor. It’s something we work on every week.”
Docherty made it clear that the group understands the standard expected when playing for Rangers, and the first half simply didn’t meet it.
“It’s nowhere near good enough. We have a talented group, but the way we started was really, really poor,” she continued.
“We need to stop talking about learning and start winning games.”
The second half brought a completely different Rangers.
High tempo, quicker combinations, sustained territory, and chance creation arrived too late but arrived convincingly.
Kathy Hill pulled one back before the break, and Mia McAulay curled in a superb strike to set up a furious final half-hour.
Rangers pinned Hearts back, forced errors, and repeatedly threatened goalkeeper Rachel Johnstone, who produced several outstanding saves to preserve the lead.
Manager Leanne Crichton echoed Docherty’s assessment: the issue was not ability, it was application and preperation.
She said: “It was a really poor first half, the structure in the team wasn’t there.
“We didn’t respond or react after the first goal.”
She was blunt that the breakdowns are not new and not acceptable: “Tomorrow’s review becomes very similar to ones we’ve already had this season.
“It’s a pattern we are trying to rectify.”
Yet Crichton also refused to ignore the second-half response: “The mentality and the way the players went about it in the second half was excellent.
“We gave ourselves a really good chance to take something.”
Rangers created enough chances to take a result, but once again they simply left themselves too much work to do.
There is no time to dwell. A SWPL Cup quarter final Glasgow Derby against Partick Thistle arrives next weekend, followed by an Old Firm clash at Ibrox on Friday, November 14. The schedule is relentless; the squad is thin and Rangers margin for error is shrinking.
Docherty was clear on what must change: “We need to figure out why it’s not happening in the first half, but it’s happening in the second.”
The message now is simple: reactionary football cannot be the identity.
The second half showed what Rangers are capable of. The first half showed why results are currently slipping.