By Barry Anderson

Copyright scotsman

Entering his living-room last Thursday night, Derek McInnes sat down to formulate a plan to beat Rangers. Bits of paper surrounded the Hearts head coach on his setee as he scribbled possible starting line-ups for Ibrox. By his side, his son Jack watched on, fascinated by a tactical mind at work. The name ‘Schwolow’ was jotted down first. The German goalkeeper was always going to make his debut despite a lack of match practice. Slowly, a four-man defence came together, then a midfield shape and two attackers – Lawrence Shankland and Claudio Braga. Both forwards would be instrumental in a historic victory. McInnes knew his team had the potential to humble Rangers, he just needed to get his selection right. Training sessions at Riccarton last week were sharp, confident and bubbly. Exactly what a manager would want prior to a trip to Glasgow. An element of surprise is always useful when tackling Celtic or Rangers away, and one name on McInnes’ paper stood out above all others. When he etched the name ‘Milne’ on the right of midfield, even close family began questioning if he was out of his mind. Yet it worked. A marauding and dominant Hearts left wing-back this season, Harry Milne was a huge success as a right midfielder at Ibrox. He won crucial headers, was comfortable on the ball high up the pitch, and willingly defended to support Oisin McEntee behind him at right-back. The unusual selection became something of a masterstroke despite initial doubts in the McInnes household. “I felt we’d had a good week. I had an idea of my team,” McInnes explained in an exclusive interview with the Edinburgh News. “That wide-right position and the shape I wanted, that’s what won the fight. So we needed to get the best one to play wide right. We had spoken about that and Harry was fine with it. Maybe it looked a bit unusual. My son said to me when he saw the team written out on the couch on Thursday night, he said: ‘Harry Milne wide right? You mad? “I spoke to Harry about it. He played there a lot when he was younger. When I explained the reason why, I do think Rangers on the left-hand side are stronger. Obviously, [Djeidi] Gassama didn’t start there. We anticipated him starting on the left. Even in the warm-up, we were bang-on. I went out and watched a bit of it and I thought the boys looked ready. It’s never always a clear indication. I’ve seen brilliant warm-ups before after a good week’s training. Sometimes you don’t know. “At the start, I think Braga and Shankland dovetailed brilliantly with each other. I thought Shankland was a masterclass in terms of leading the line and Braga was just perpetual motion. He put so much into the game that he runs his race. We spoke about trying to manage his 90 minutes a wee bit more. It’s so hard when you see him. He’s so willing to run beyond. He’s so willing to link the play. He’s so willing to show what he is.” Shankland’s two goals earned Hearts a 2-0 win as they left Ibrox victorious for the first time since 2014. Braga was simply the best player on the pitch. Sometimes there is no point trying to rein in a player with such infectious enthusiasm. “No. A lot of these boys are coming from a level where they don’t play in these sort of environments. It’s good for them that they’ve come to Ibrox with confidence,” acknowledged McInnes. “We’ve seen big [Tomas] Magnusson hit the post when he came on. There were loads of good things about it. I think the start was good. I thought Halks [Craig Halkett] could maybe have scored with his header. Sometimes you need to score to really enforce that belief.” Other times, you need a manager reinforce it. The half-time team talk inside Hearts’ dressing room inspired a controlled and clinical second-half display. McInnes revealed exactly what was said. “We spoke at half-time about it. We said: ‘We’ve won nothing yet. I don’t want us to be getting back-slapped after the game. We don’t go into a press conference after the game and make a reference to a good 45 minutes. We get something from the game. From this point in, we’ll be disappointed if we don’t go and win it. It’s all about winning it.’ “There was another five or 10-minute spell, round about 65 or 70 minutes. I thought we were pretty comfortable in the game. We had options again from the bench. The boys coming off the bench helped negate what Rangers offered. They went to two strikers, with two wingers at wing-back. I think with [Nedim] Bajrami and [Thelo] Aasgaard, they had two high No.8s beyond that. You’re dealing with six attacking players there. I actually thought we had the answers to deal with it, with Jamie McCart coming back and Michael Steinwender playing as an auxiliary right wing-back towards the end. Then we had a brilliant counter-attack. “If you’re going to play that back five, you change it. You naturally go a bit deeper in a game. Not that you want to, but you do if you get forced back another 15 or 20 yards. It then makes the grass behind their back line bigger, so you need people to run. Elton Kabangu was a brilliant sub. We got the second goal, thankfully, with a penalty from Lawrence. That made it difficult for Rangers and it helped our job to take it over the line. If the belief wasn’t there before, it certainly was after that one.” READ MORE: Rangers pay for their Shankland mistake