Football: TAKING THE MICHAEL

Sep 23 2007 By GORDON WADDELL

Under-fire star Hart insists Dons must do their talking on the pitch RANGERS v ABERDEEN Today, kick-off 3pm

MICHAEL HART walked into Ibrox six months ago with 50,000 punters and 11 raging Rangers players baying for his blood.

And they took it. Pints of the stuff. Today he will walk quietly back through the door, trying to silence the place instead of setting it on fire.

The Aberdeen full-back sent an already explosive clash nuclear in March when pre-match comments slating some Gers stars made him public enemy No.1.

The Dons started the game chasing second spot and ended it chasing shadows after Kris Boyd's half-hour hat-trick left them bleeding on the Ibrox turf.

And to make matters worse for Hart his own boss then filleted him for giving Rangers all the motivation they needed.

Now, with 26 defeats and only five draws in their last 31 visits to Ibrox, Hart admits it's time Dons did their talking on the park.

He said: "I got a hard time before, during and after that game! It was blown out of proportion. I said nothing against the Rangers players - just that I had all the confidence in the world in our own lads.

"But it was taken as having a go at their guys. The point I was putting forward was that we had Jamie Smith and Craig Brewster coming back and I wouldn't swap them for anyone in the league.

"It was then made out I wouldn't swap Jamie and Craig for the Rangers guys and even went on to name them.

"I'm not the kind of guy to slag off other professionals but I know it looked that way.

"It made for a difficult day.

You try to black it out but Rangers have 50,000 at every home game.

You're going to hear some of it.

Probably even my mum and dad were shouting at me that day.

"Seriously, I have the utmost respect for Rangers. That's not to say we won't believe we can get one over on them."

With no win at Ibrox since 1991, though, Hart knows the Dons are up against it.

And he reckons the rock-solid start the Gers defence has made to the campaign has made a hard job even harder.

However, Aberdeen's showing in the UEFA Cup draw with Dnipro on Thursday showed signs they're about to turn the corner after a ropey start.

Hart said: "Rangers have spent money and have big players who rise to the occasion. So it's a challenge to break that duck.

"Davie Weir has made a huge difference to their defence and Alan Hutton's looking like a right good player. They have a settled back four who are hard to break down. It will be tough.

"We know Rangers are on a high after their win over Stuttgart but we did OK on Thursday against Dnipro as well.

"It certainly beat our recent displays. It was just disappointing not to get the goal."

That was mainly down to the heroics of Dnipro keeper Vyacheslav Kernozenko but Hart knows Aberdeen could rue their missed chances at Pittodrie.

Two years ago Hibs matched the Dons' goalless draw against the Ukrainians - only to be humbled 5-1 on the trip east.

Michael said: "It's useful to know Hibs struggled over there but we're our own worst enemy.

"On our game we can beat anyone but some weeks we don't play anywhere near as well as we can. Hopefully we can build on the way we played on Thursday.

"People keep talking about Russell Anderson's absence from the team but the goals we've conceded are more down to individual errors.

"Andrew Considine and Zander Diamond have had the chance to bed in and we can get a settled back four.

"Zander was brilliant against Dnipro. When he first broke into the team hewas unbelievable and needs to start believing he's a good player again. If he does that, the sky's the limit for him."