McInnes and O'Neill keeping cool as Premiership title race catches fire

Image source, SNSByGeorge O'NeillBBC Sport Scotland

Published28 minutes ago

It seems as though everyone is hyping up the conclusion to the Scottish Premiership title race. Everyone except those involved, that is.

With Rangers now arithmetically out of the running after three consecutive losses, it is down to Hearts and defending champions Celtic.

The Edinburgh side will be crowned champions of Scotland for the first time since 1960 if they beat Falkirk and Celtic lose at Motherwell on Wednesday.

Any other combination of results and it will go to the final game of the season, on Saturday, when the top two face off at Parkhead. Potentially epic.

Group chats, office and pub talk, TV, radio and podcast shows - they're all talking about it, but those at the centre of it are keeping it on the down low.

"I've just assumed Celtic are going to win the game," Hearts head coach Derek McInnes said on Tuesday. "I've had it in my head that we're going to the last game."

"We're all guilty of talking a really good game," Celtic interim boss Martin O'Neill said later in the day. "You have to do it on the pitch."

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Nerves 'totally normal' for Hearts

Hearts have been front-runners for the majority of this captivating campaign, but this is uncharted territory for the Tynecastle outfit.

It is more than 40 years since a team other than Celtic or Rangers won Scotland's top flight - Sir Alex Ferguson's Aberdeen in 1985.

"Any of that kind of talk... I understand it," 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're going to have to win two games or certainly pick up four points from the next two games.

"The team meeting will just be about this game and no distractions other than that."

Captain Lawrence Shankland - who scored the winner against Rangers and the equaliser against Motherwell in Hearts' past two matches - says the players must take confidence from their results to this point.

"There will be nerves, it's totally normal when you're in this position," the Scotland striker said. "It's just about controlling them.

"Throughout the season we've dealt with that really well. That needs to continue. There needs to be that level of composure so you can go and do your job properly."

'No room for Celtic mistakes'

Celtic and their veteran manager have been here before.

O'Neill, who has won three league titles with the club, has guided the defending champions from the wreckage of Wilfried Nancy's brief tenure to a position that looked unlikely as recently as the start of April.

Defeat at Tannadice before the international break left them five points behind with seven matches to play, but five straight wins since have narrowed the gap to one.

"They've known for some weeks, particularly after the game at Dundee United, that there's no room for mistakes," O'Neill said of his players.

"That's hard to keep going every single game because there'll be a match where you might actually dominate, you might not score in that period, and the other team might break away and find themselves 1-0 up."

Much like McInnes, the former Leicester City, Aston Villa and Republic of Ireland manager is not looking beyond Wednesday.

"We can only look at ourselves and try and win the game," O'Neill said. "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."