The excitement surrounding the Scottish Premiership title race is reaching a fever pitch—except among those directly involved. With Rangers mathematically eliminated after three straight losses, the battle is now between Hearts and reigning champions Celtic.
Hearts, seeking their first Scottish top-flight title since 1960, could clinch the championship on Wednesday if they defeat Falkirk and Celtic lose at Motherwell. Any other outcome would push the decision to the final match of the season on Saturday, where the top two meet at Parkhead—a potentially epic showdown.
While fans, pundits, and media outlets are buzzing, the key figures remain grounded. “I’ve just assumed Celtic are going to win the game,” said Hearts head coach Derek McInnes on Tuesday. “I’ve had it in my head that we’re going to the last game.”
Celtic’s interim boss Martin O’Neill echoed the sentiment: “We’re all guilty of talking a really good game. You have to do it on the pitch.”
**Nerves Are ‘Totally Normal’ for Hearts**
Hearts have led the table for much of the gripping campaign, but this is uncharted territory for the Edinburgh club. It has been over 40 years since a team outside the Old Firm won Scotland’s top division—Sir Alex Ferguson’s Aberdeen in 1985.
“I understand the talk,” McInnes said. “It’s nice to hear ‘Hearts could win the league at Tynecastle’ because I don’t know how many people have been able to say that in their lifetime. But the likelihood is, if we’re going to win the league, we’ll need to win two games or pick up four points from the next two.”
Captain Lawrence Shankland, who scored the winner against Rangers and the equalizer against Motherwell in the last two matches, urged his teammates to draw confidence from their results. “There will be nerves, it’s totally normal when you’re in this position,” said the Scotland striker. “It’s about controlling them. Throughout the season we’ve dealt with that really well. That needs to continue.”
**’No Room for Mistakes’ for Celtic**
Celtic and their veteran manager have navigated such pressure before. O’Neill, a three-time league winner with the club, has steered the defending champions from the turmoil of Wilfried Nancy’s brief reign to a position that seemed unlikely at the start of April. A defeat at Tannadice before the international break left them five points adrift with seven games remaining, but five consecutive wins have narrowed the gap to one point.
“They’ve known for some weeks, especially after the game at Dundee United, that there’s no margin for error,” O’Neill said of his players. “That’s hard to sustain every game because there’ll be a match where you dominate, fail to score, and the opponent breaks away to lead 1-0.”
Like McInnes, O’Neill is focused only on Wednesday. “We can only look at ourselves and try to win the game. Then the weekend will take care of itself. We’ve come a long distance here. We would like it to go to the last game.”
