The Scottish Premiership title race heated up this weekend, delivering intense drama as Hearts, Celtic, and Rangers each vied for supremacy at the top of the leaderboard.
Hearts emerged victorious with a crucial 2-1 win over their rivals Hibs at Easter Road, while Rangers faced a significant setback with a 3-2 defeat at home to Motherwell, leaving them four points behind in the standings.
On the other hand, Celtic secured a solid 3-1 triumph over Falkirk on Saturday, ensuring they stay just three points shy of catching Hearts.
Q: Danny Rohl urges Rangers fans to keep believing. Is there any substantial reason for them to do so?
Sunday’s loss to Motherwell is undeniably a severe blow to Rangers’ championship hopes. It underscores a pivotal moment in their campaign.
Emmanuel Longelo smashes home the late winner at Ibrox that has changed the title picture
With only four matches remaining, three of which are away, Rangers face a steep challenge, trailing Hearts by four points. The situation is dire enough that, akin to a snooker game, Rangers might soon need a miracle to turn things around.
There was precious little in the performance on Sunday to suggest Rohl’s side can go on and win the title. The first half, in particular, was abysmal. Rangers were lucky to only be 2-0 down at half-time.
There is a difference between genuine belief and just nothing more than blind faith. The latter would surely apply to the scenario now facing Rangers ahead of their trip to face Hearts at Tynecastle next Monday.
Q: Do you get the sense that pressure is starting to build on Rohl?
The only reason Rangers are in a title race at all is because of the way Rohl was able to turn things around over those first three or four months in the job. You have to give him credit for that. But cracks are now starting to appear — both on and off the pitch.
In his post-match media conference on Sunday, Daily Mail Sport made the point about there being very little upturn in performance levels despite the training camp in Spain last week. It was a valid question but he clearly didn’t like it and had a nibble back.
He is a Rangers manager who is trying to win a league title — of course he’s under pressure. The club backed him with significant investment in January to try and get over the line. If Rangers fall short and end up being knocked out of the title race at Tynecastle next Monday, it would be a huge anti-climax from their point of view.
Danny Rohl insists Rangers are still in the hunt but their loss to Motherwell was a massive blow
Q: Are you convinced that Celtic have improved to the degree where they can get over the line?
The improvements may be small and incremental, but there’s no doubt they are playing better now than they were six weeks ago. They are slowly but surely starting to find some decent form at the right time of the season.
Are they suddenly hitting vintage form? No, absolutely not. They would still go down as one of the poorest teams ever to win a league title, but that’s by the by. You can only view this in the context of what they are up against in the title race.
Celtic are still doing enough to stay in contention and, crucially, they are now starting to get some key players back to fitness and in good form.
Q: If Celtic go on and win a league and cup double, could Martin O’Neill stay on as manager?
One of the things that stood out to me from their win over Falkirk at the weekend was the scenes pre-match with thousands of fans gathered outside the stadium. It was pretty much the first time all season that the atmosphere around Celtic Park looked pretty unified.
With only a handful of games left to play, it looks very much like fans have agreed to park all the off-field aggro and protests against the board. They will support the team unconditionally across these next few weeks and, if O’Neill does indeed win a double, there will be an almighty clamour for him to stay.
Celtic ground out victory against Falkirk and are in the hunt despite being well below their best
I wouldn’t rule it out at all. There is clearly going to be a period of major transition at Celtic in the summer with a huge rebuild. I would personally still look to appoint a younger, more progressive coach who can take the club forward longer-term, but the steadying hand of O’Neill for another year would certainly carry a lot of weight among supporters.
Q: How do you quantify the significance of Hearts’ win over Hibs?
In normal circumstances, Hearts taking a point away at Easter Road would have been viewed as a decent enough result. Not great, but by no means a disaster.
However, to play such a large period of the match against nine men, major questions would have been asked of Derek McInnes and his players had they failed to leave with all three points.
It was a monumental result. If Hearts do go on and win the title, that will undoubtedly be viewed among the top few results that paved the way to glory. Especially the manner by which it arrived, to come from behind and score a late winner, moments like that are what football is all about.
Q: Is there now an argument that Hearts have one hand on the trophy?
They are now very, very close. The theory around the title race over recent months is that it is likely to go all the way to the wire on the final day of the season. But there’s a chance Hearts may well have it wrapped up by then.
Lawrence Shankland and goal hero Blair Spittal lead the Hearts celebrations at Easter Road
Next weekend is shaping up to be of colossal importance. If Celtic were to slip up against Hibs at Easter Road on Sunday, that would then give Hearts the chance to move further clear if they can beat Rangers at Tynecastle on Monday.
If results go in their favour, there could be a scenario next week which would see Hearts being six points clear of Celtic and seven clear of Rangers. With only three games left to play, that would pretty much be a done deal.
They probably do have one hand on the title at the moment. By this point next week, they could very well have nine fingers wrapped around it.
