Jefferies recognised the effort of his players at Ibrox

Hearts manager Jim Jefferies admitted he withdrew midfielder Ian Black during the 1-0 defeat to Rangers partly to protect the player.

Black was booked for a challenge on El Hadji Diouf during the first half at Ibrox and was replaced by Ryan Stevenson at the interval.

"He was targeted a lot by the crowd and even with an accidental challenge, he could have been off," said Jefferies.

"He had a knock as well so it was the right thing to do."

Jefferies had to shuffle his pack ahead of the trip to Glasgow and was forced into a late change when David Obua, who was due to start, picked up a knock in the warm-up.

And the manager said: "It was better than last Wednesday (the 4-0 defeat to Celtic).

"We had a makeshift squad tonight but they gave us everything and we didn't capitulate like last week.

"We can't complain about the efforts of the players, although you could see we had key players missing."

Meanwhile, Hearts have held signing discussions with former player and free agent Andy Webster, who was released by Rangers on Monday.

"He's got a lot of options, some decent offers, but the talks went well," added Jefferies.

"He obviously knows all about the club already so it's about getting an agreement now. We won't put him under any pressure, it's up to him.

"He'll listen to offers from elsewhere and make his decision. We've done all we can and we will wait and see if his agent and our people can agree a deal."

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