The home support voiced their frustration after the final whistle of a game which also saw Lafferty carried off on a stretcher after 33 minutes.
This, however, had little effect on the final outcome of the game and the Rangers’ players must have been sitting in the Home Dressing Room after the 90 minutes wondering where and how it all went wrong.
Before a ball was kicked Smith had injury problems to contend with.
The gaffer had to draft in Christian Dailly and Lee McCulloch to the heart of his defence with Madjid Bougherra and Kirk Broadfoot out through injury and Davie Weir suspended.
Csaba Laszlo stuck by his 4-5-1 policy despite Gers’ defensive problems with Christian Nade given the lone striker role.
Rangers started the game in a positive fashion and always looked the team most likely to get the scoring underway.
Steven Whittaker pushed forward at every given opportunity and the right-back had a decent long-range effort saved by Jambo’s third choice keeper Jamie McDonald who dived low to his left to make the stop.
Lafferty was a constant thorn for the Hearts backline in the early stages and it took the big striker only nine minutes to fire home a terrific opener.
Beasley looked to play a pass through to Kris Boyd but the ball made its way to big Kyle who picked his spot at the near post with a precision shot.
From this point the Light Blues immediately went in search of a second and Whittaker again came close on 12 minutes when he toe-poked a Davis cross inches past the post.
Everything was going according to plan until the 26th minutes when Lafferty went down after taking a knock to his right foot.
The Northern-Ireland striker walked tentatively around the pitch after receiving treatment from club doctor Paul Jackson.
He rejoined the play but his afternoon was to be short-lived and on 33 minutes he was stretchered off and looked in some pain going up the tunnel.
Nacho Novo was the man given the opportunity to join the action from the bench and this hiccup did little to change the pattern of play with Rangers continuing to dominate.
The first-half looked to be finishing with Rangers a goal up but a late flurry of attacking play was to see the home side double their advantage through Barry Ferguson.
Mendes took a poor corner in front of the Broomloan Stand but the ball was cleared back to him by a Hearts defender.
The Portuguese midfielder looked up as if he was going to deliver another cross but instead cut the ball to Fergie in the box and the skipper took one touch before blasting a tremendous shot through a crowd of players in to the net.
Barry put his hands to his ears as he celebrated, a clear dig at some of the critics that have given him stick in recent weeks.
Laszlo made one change at the interval with Calum Elliot replacing Deividas Cesnauskis as the Jambos moved to a 4-4-2 formation.
Rangers, however, continued to dominate after the restart and on 54 minutes Ferguson could have scored his side’s third when Novo laid the ball in to his path but from 20 yards his shot was high and wide.
The turning point of the game came on 62 minutes when Novo missed a great opportunity after a swift counter attack.
With the visitors pushing forward Mendes found Davis on the half way line and the industrious midfielder played an inch perfect pass to Novo who was free on the right.
The Spaniard sprinted through on goal but his shot clipped the near post before going out for a goal kick.
From there things could not have gone worse for Rangers.
On 63 minutes Allan McGregor had to make a terrific save from Elliot, tipping the ball over the bar from a dipping 25-yard shot.
But from the resulting corner Hearts got a goal back.
The ball came in and when Rangers failed to clear the danger Christos Karipidis was there to head home from close range after a goal mouth scramble.
Only three minutes later and the comeback was complete.
With Mendes and Beasley caught in an advanced position Hearts went on the attack and when a long, raking pass found Calum Elliot at the back post he nodded the ball down to Ruben Palazuelos who drilled a left foot shot home from 15 yards.
The goal stunned the home support who had watched their team dominate so much of this one-side encounter.
Rangers desperately searched for a winning goal in the final 15 minutes but the visitor’s stood their ground and defended in the manner Laszlo would have wanted in the first-half.
With Celtic in action against Dundee United tomorrow only time will tell how costly this draw could be but the manner in which two crucial SPL points were dropped will again raise questions over whether Rangers have it in them to win the title this season.