The Gers were propelled by goals from Alex Smith, Calum Adamson, Chris Eadie and an Aiden McCallion spot-kick as they flexed their muscles in a commanding second half display, which yielded three of the four goals, to open their account in the league.
Stevie Smith named a comparatively more youthful side compared to last week’s clash against Stenhousemuir in the KDM Evolution Trophy, with the starting lineup featuring the 2009-born duo of Ben Hutton and Max Cameron.
The first chance in the contest belonged to the visitors from Edinburgh when Rangers played themselves into trouble inside their own penalty area, but they were fortunate that Taylor Hogarth contrived to smash his effort from five yards out against the crossbar.
There wasn’t much to separate the two sides in the opening blows as Cameron Fernie fired wide for the Gers moments later.
Indeed, it spoke to the cagey nature of the contest when Blaine McClure collected a pass from Lewis Stewart 20 yards from goal that he could only curl his effort straight into the arms of Jack Lyon in the Hearts goal.
The away side went close to opening the scoring, however, just shy of the half-hour mark when a well-worked passage of play saw Hogarth volley smartly towards goal but Rydnn McGuire was down superbly to palm the ball around for a corner at full-stretch.
Rangers were then grateful for the woodwork seven minutes prior to the interval when they were caught napping from a quick free-kick and Owen Muirhead curled against the outside of the far post.
The game certainly required a moment of magic and it was delivered on the stroke of half-time by the Gers.
The move was initiated deep inside the Rangers half after a neat flick around-the-corner from Aiden McCallion to release Lyle Wark into space. Stewart then received on the left-hand side and when his strike ricocheted back to McClure it was the Northern Irishman’s pinpoint delivery which was met on the head of the diminutive Smith who made no mistake from close-range.
Although they carried an advantage into the half-time interval it surely provided the home side with some respite after a first half where Hearts had been offered far more than what Rangers would have liked.
A slack pass immediately following the restart offered Hearts encouragement as Gus Stevenson raced through on goal, but the Hearts winger’s attempted pull-back was thwarted by the backtracking Lyle Wark much to the relief of the hosts.
Owen Muirhead then blasted over at the far post for the Edinburgh outfit less than 60 seconds later.
And whatever warning the away side had sent was duly heeded by Rangers as they doubled their advantage eight minutes later to carve out a much-needed cushion in the contest.
Smith’s side sprung forward quickly on the counter-attack as McClure lifted a ball into acres of space for the speedy Cameron to stretch his legs and draw contact inside the penalty area as he looked to unleash at goal.
The referee pointed to the penalty spot and it was left to McCallion, donning the captain’s armband once again, to dispatch confidently beyond Lyon who went early in the opposite direction.
At the same time Smith reshuffled his pack with a triple substitution as the more experienced trio of Eadie, Adamson and Callum Burnside entered the fray.
Eadie immediately went close when he curled a Stewart lay-off goalwards first-time but just inches wide of Lyon’s far post.
Further chances fell to Adamson who found himself bearing down on the Hearts goal before his effort was blocked, while Burnside strode onto a Smith pull-back at the edge of the penalty area and dragged a powerful strike wide of the target.
Any hopes of Hearts launching a launch comeback were extinguished ten minutes from time when the Gers added a third of the afternoon through Adamson.
It was neat combination play from the two substitutes of Burnside and Adamson which unlocked the Jambos’ defence, allowing the latter to round Lyon and stroke cooly into an empty net.
There was still time for the Light Blues to add a fourth of the afternoon as Adamson, so impressive upon his introduction, fired a wicked delivery across the face of goal which Eadie tapped home from point-blank range to cap off a dazzling attacking display.
RANGERS: McGuire, B. Hutton, Kerr, Campbell, Wark, McCallion, McClure (Adamson, 57), Fernie (Burnside, 57), Stewart, Smith (Christie, 75), Cameron (Eadie, 57)
Subs not used: Thackray, Hynd, Reid
HEARTS: Lyon, Glasgow, Osborne, Muirhead, Stevenson, Gillies, Hogarth, Wilson, Radcliffe, Nair, North
Subs: Tas, Kelly, Walker, Robb, McMeekin, Dickov
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