We may be hurtling towards March, but there’s still an element of the pantomime season being in full flow in Scottish football. Is there a title race in the Ladbrokes Premiership? Oh yes there is, roar some. Oh no there isn’t, bellow the others. There was even something of a panto villain here at Ibrox yesterday in the shape of Steven Naismith, who was greeted by the kind of jeering and hissing you’d get at the Pavilion when the baddie takes centre stage.

When it was all over, Graeme Murty refused to get embroiled in all this is there, isn’t there bletherings. His team reduced the gap to table-topping Celtic to six points with this thoroughly merited triumph over Hearts but the Rangers manager was keeping his cards close to the chest amid the clamour for a ‘we’re coming to get you’ soundbite.

"I'm not sure we are even in Celtic's minds,” he said. "You guys can say that (a title race) all you want but as far as I am concerned they are still the team to beat at the top of the table. All we can do is worry about us and make sure we do our job. And we did our job today.”

Jamie Murphy got Rangers up and running just before half-time but they had to wait until the last knockings to put the tin lid on the win with Russell Martin’s first goal for the club. The dominant hosts had 24 efforts on goal during the 90 minutes. Jon McLaughlin, the Hearts keeper, just about made a similar number of saves … and Josh Windass probably had as many misses. Rangers got there in the end, though.

"It was a game where we could have been more clinical and scored more but it was a thoroughly professional performance against a very stubborn and well-organised opponent,” added Murty.

The biggest outpouring of noise in the early stages was reserved for former Rangers man Kyle Lafferty, who was roundly booed upon getting his first touch. Perhaps the neatly coiffured folk in the stands simply didn’t like his bleached hair? There were certainly one or two hair-raising moments for Hearts in the opening minutes as their hosts mounted a purposeful assault.

A raking Sean Goss effort was palmed over the bar by McLaughlin before the Hearts custodian stuck out a long arm to deny Greg Docherty’s low drive.

There were plenty of defensive chores for the visitors to be getting on with but they did manage a menacing forage on 17 minutes. Lafferty was afforded far too much space by a dithering Rangers rearguard and having engineered an opening, his looping shot was punched over by the flying Wes Foderingham. Not long after, Foderingham leapt into action again and flung himself to his left to beat away Joaquim Adao’s curler as Hearts grew in stature.

After that flurry of advances from the visitors, Rangers upped the ante again. Alfredo Morelos made a right hash of a free header at the back post while a series of surging raids were repelled by a hard-working Hearts back line. Just as Rangers were pondering bringing out the hammer and chisel, the visiting defence cracked. Murphy embarked on an angled run across the box that left a a variety of Hearts bodies strewn in desperate abandon before managing to squeeze a shot through a tangle of legs and into the net.

It had been a lively, engaging old tussle and there was little let up after the resumption. Windass plonked a shot over the bar from eight yards while the industrious Docherty brought out another good block from McLaughlin. The Rangers profligacy was causing the frustrated harrumphing in the stands to increase and the needles on the grumble-ometer went pinging into the red on the hour. A Hearts corner swiftly turned into a fearsome Rangers counter but having been sent free by Candeias’ pass, Windass couldn’t get the better of McLaughlin in the head-to-head.

McLaughlin thwarted both Murphy and Windass again before a ricochet off Naismith caused some gasps as it bounced wide at the other end. Martin finally eased the tension in the 88th minute when he swept home a low Candeias cross from a couple of yards.

“It was unlike us today,” said Craig Levein, who conceded his side had been well beaten. “I think 2-0 flattered us. I’m just really looking forward to Tuesday’s game against Kilmarnock now to get rid of this taste in my mouth.”