The comfort for Hearts fans as the dust settles on a tempestuous week in Scottish football may lie in the history books.
Forty-one years ago this month, plain old Alex Ferguson won his third title with Aberdeen. While Willie Miller and Alex McLeish were the defensive linchpins of that era, the real foundation of that all-conquering side was its mentality.
If there wasn’t a genuine slight close to hand, the manager would simply invent one; His players bought into it. Nursing a siege mentality, they swept all before them.
Ahead of Saturday’s league decider at Celtic Park, Derek McInnes won’t have to play mind games and drag his players into a psychological bunker. They’re already there.
And if the Hearts manager can use the unfairness they evidently feel at decisions going against them across the past week in the same way Ferguson did, then the great man’s claim to being the last non-Old Firm manager to lift the title will be under serious threat.
Amid all the hullabaloo, Hearts still need only a draw with Celtic to get there. They’ve beaten the champions home and away this season. In their past seven matches, they’ve won five and drawn two. They’re on fine form.
Hearts midfielder Cammy Devlin celebrates his goal in the 3-0 win over Falkirk
Provided they keep their heads in what will be a cauldron at Parkhead, they still have the wherewithal to claim that elusive first title since 1960. If they exert too much energy on what’s gone, they’ll be their own worst enemies.
While this unquestionably is the biggest game of McInnes’ managerial career, it should be the easiest team-talk he’s ever given. Events of the past week have seen to that.
By common consent, his side were wrongly denied a penalty at Fir Park last Saturday when Tawanda Maswanhise impeded Alexandros Kyziridis. Many believe they could have had another for Emmanuel Longelo’s handball. In all likelihood, that cost McInnes’ side two precious points.
Then we come to Wednesday. With Hearts cruising against Falkirk and Celtic tied with Motherwell going into injury time, the task awaiting McInnes’ players was avoiding a three-goal defeat at Parkhead.
All that changed when Sam Nicholson’s handball was flagged up by VAR Andrew Dallas with referee John Beaton concurring with the view that an offence had taken place.
While the feelings of the Key Match Incidents panel won’t be known for some time, it’s fair to say that the officials’ take on the flashpoint has put them in the minority.
As a consequence of a decision which McInnes described as ‘disgusting,’ Celtic no longer need to win well come the weekend. They just have to win.
Celtic were awarded a late penalty, via VAR, for an apparent handball by Sam Nicholson
And if O’Neill’s side somehow pull it off, Hearts’ fans will feel like they were given the short end of the stick this week for evermore.
You can well understand this mindset, if it comes to pass. Even though a poor call in week one can be just as damaging if it arrives in week 37, they always feel bigger going down the home straight.
But while taking a longer-term view to gain a sense of perspective isn’t really the done thing when there’s a title on the line, Hearts would be wrong to nurse a persecution complex on the basis of the entire season to date.
The purpose of the KMI panel, the independent group which reviews the performances of VAR teams, remains something of a mystery.
It has no real authority and there are no apparent consequences when it convenes.
But its findings – which are in themselves subjective by nature – do make for interesting reading.
Up to and including the first weekend in May, and also including cup matches, the club which most VAR decisions were deemed to have gone against happened to be Rangers with five.
While these didn’t always result in dropped points, the Ibrox men would assuredly have been in a better place going into the post-split fixtures if officials – in the estimation of the panel – had applied the rules. It’s instructive to note that Hearts and Celtic only had one injustice. apiece.
Shankland scored against Rangers in September after handling the ball in the build-up
In terms of VAR decisions going a particular side’s way, Hearts and Rangers, with three each, were only one behind leading beneficiary Falkirk, who’d four, with Celtic sitting on two.
For what it’s worth, John McGlynn’s outfit were felt to have had more breaks than any other team in the top division. It’s just a fact of life that when a side is safely in the top six and out of contention for Europe, no one is inclined to make a big deal about it.
Among the mistakes identified by the three-person KMI panel, in games involving Hearts, was a handball by Lawrence Shankland in the build-up to a goal at Ibrox as McInnes’ men won there in September.
In the same game, it was felt that a goal from Rangers’ Derek Cornelius – which was disallowed – should have been given.
VAR was also said to have erred when it chalked off Miguel Freckleton’s goal for St Mirren against Hearts in October which would have put the Buddies 3-1 up. The game finished 2-2.
The only time the KMI panel felt Hearts were short-changed was the failure of the referee or VAR to send off Falkirk’s Trey Samuel-Ogunsuyi for a foul on Stuart Findlay in a 3-0 win for the Jambos in September.
Even assuming that Hearts’ concerns about this week stack up when the final batch of KMI decisions comes out, over the piece, they’ll have had as many decisions go for them as against – up to Saturday’s grand finale.
The fact is that it’s easy to gloss over the ones that went your way when you’ve had a run of decisions going against you – especially when it’s crunch time.
With Hearts fans understandably angry in this moment, the Foundation of Hearts should be commended for addressing the matter sensibly with a statement which didn’t reek of paranoia.
For the sake of our sanity, we can only hope that their wish for the decider to have the ‘highest standards’ of officiating is granted and that, one way or the other, it’s decided by a moment of quality.
Celtic have struggled this season but eked out a victory courtesy of Iheanacho’s winner
The truth of the matter is that as gripping and dramatic as this race has been, the product has hardly been vintage.
While Hearts have been outstanding, it’s inarguable that they have benefited from the shortcomings of others.
Having been at each other’s throats for a century and a half, Celtic and Rangers managed to appoint the worst managers in their respective histories in the same season.
Although the Parkhead club are showing signs of life recently, winning six games for the first time this season, the consensus is that this is the poorest Celtic team in years.
Despite it going to the wire, Hearts still have a gilt-edged opportunity to create history by finishing ahead of them. If they fall short, it may haunt them forever. Lumping the blame purely on officials just won’t wash.
