There had been so much mouth-frothing chatter in the week about the prospect of Rangers clambering to the summit yesterday you half expected Steven Gerrard’s team to travel to Tynecastle with backpacks, slabs of Kendal mint cake and Chris Bonnington’s Pictorial Guide To Mountaineering.

In the end, they made it to the top of the Ladbrokes Premiership but scaling such heights doesn’t come easy. At the conclusion of a barnstorming, boisterous, bruising battle full of industry, invention, a good dose of niggle and a hefty chunk of controversy, Rangers turned an early deficit into a 2-1 lead before ploughing on manfully for the second time in a few days with 10-men as Scott Arfield was sent-off amid the general tumult.

With Alfredo Morelos’ winner stoking up much heated debate as the Colombian was lurking in an offside position when he flicked home a delightful finish just before half-time, there was plenty to rake over once the billowing dust from a rambunctious encounter had finally settled.

GERRARD NOT GETTING GIDDY ON LOFTY PERCH

So, Rangers are top of the league. And their fans celebrated like they’d won the league.

Gerrard and his backroom team, meanwhile, gathered on the touchline in a jubilant huddle which almost had echoes of his well-documented “we go again” rallying cry when the Liverpool side he was captaining stole a march in the race for the English Premiership title back in 2014.

And what happened then? That’s right, they didn’t win it. Gerrard is certainly not going to be getting carried away by this ascent. Yes, it’s a sturdy statement of intent and a fist-pumping morale-booster but there are no prizes dished out in December.

“It means nothing to me and I’m not lying,” he said. “It is fantastic for the fans as it has been too long.

“We have worked hard to get there, but it is a challenge for us to see how long we can stay there. People have games in hand and will breathe down our neck, but it is a different responsibility.

“The players know that and we have to handle that. There is no point getting carried away, because we are in early December and you get nothing for it right now.”

LEVEIN LAUNCHES RAGING RANT AT REFEREE

When Craig Levein appeared for his post-match blether with the press, he wore a face that could have tripped him up. If Bobby Madden had spotted that, perhaps he would’ve booked Levein’s face? Or maybe not.

It was fair to say the Hearts manager was not happy with the referee. Madden had made it a maddening day for Levein particularly with the Rangers winner by Alfredo Morelos coming from an offside position.

“I read a quote from Neil Lennon a few weeks ago when they went to Celtic Park and he said that ‘we were playing against 12 men’ and that’s how I feel today,” said Levein in a withering assessment of the officials.

“How Morelos stays on the park, never mind gets through that without a booking, I’ll never know. Some of the decisions today were abysmal.

“Austin (MacPhee, his assistant) phoned John Fleming (head of referee development) because we had three goals against us that were offside because the linesman made mistakes.

“John Fleming suggested that we held the line on the 18 yard line to make it easier for his officials. So we did that today and they still f*****g got it wrong!

“Actually, it was 13 we are playing against. So, the referee was abysmal and we were playing against 13 men. That’s my view on it.

“Morelos had loads of fouls where he doesn’t even watch the ball. He just jumps into the centre-backs. There was one where he has smashed Christophe (Berra) and Bobby said to one of our players: ‘It’s alright, that’s just Morelos - he’s a bit silly sometimes’.

“Well maybe I’ll tell our players to be silly because you don’t get booked for it. It was an abysmal performance.”

Rant over ...

RED ALERT AS DISCIPLINE IS CALLED INTO QUESTION

To the list of life’s routine certainties like death and taxes perhaps we should add ‘and Rangers getting a man sent off” to that list of inevitabilities of this mortal coil.

While Alfredo Morelos was scoring for the seventh consecutive game, there was another not so magnificent seven for Rangers as Scott Arfield’s reckless slide on Hearts keeper Zdenek Zlamal saw him become the seventh Rangers player to be sent-off this season.

“We are getting used to playing with 10 men and we are quite good at it,” said Steven Gerrard with a wry grin. He’d prefer this not to be the norm, of course.

This was a tempestuous tussle and it was something of a miracle that Alfredo Morelos didn’t pick up at least a booking.

His crash-bang, wallop tussle with Christophe Berra was a feature throughout – a good old fashioned forward versus defender scrap to some – while certain referees would have been out with the cards at the Colombian’s goading of the Hearts fans.

Given the fevered atmosphere, plenty of players could have lost their heads. Not for the first time this season, Rangers dug in when numerically disadvantaged and, by and large, were pretty comfortable in keeping Hearts at bay. The disciplinary record remains a concern, though, and it could come home to roost one of these days with a costly price to pay.

HEARTS STILL LACK A CUTTING EDGE

That Hearts’ first goal in over eight-and-a-half hours came from a member of the opposing team said it all.

This was their sixth match without a win in all competitions and while there were plenty of positives from a lively display, the lack of a clinical edge, particularly against 10-men, continues to generate much harrumphing and worried head-shaking.