If we hadn’t already arrived at the business end of this season then the heightened reaction to events at the weekend surely confirmed that it’s now upon us.
A day after Hearts did the necessary with a prosaic win over Falkirk, Celtic and Rangers were losing precious points and their heads against Hibernian and Livingston, respectively.
With the home straight now coming into view, there’s an added level of hysteria to every misstep taken and each perceived injustice meted out at the hands of an official. And there’s three months of this madness still to come.
Once the dust had begun to clear on another gripping episode, the prospect of Derek McInnes’ side pulling off what would previously have been unthinkable felt even more possible.
Already four and six points ahead of Rangers and Celtic, Hearts will be expected to extend that margin on Saturday by putting struggling Aberdeen to the sword at Tynecastle. For the Gorgie players, Sunday is popcorn time.
While the loser of the Old Firm clash at Ibrox will still be in with an arithmetic chance of winning the league, the damage to morale with the games now being ticked off would be colossal.
Celtic boss Martin O’Neill can’t afford his team to have any more slips after the defeat by Hibs
Rangers needed Mikey Moore’s late equaliser in a 2-2 draw away to Livingston on Sunday
Hearts boss Derek McInnes can look forward to a favourable run of games in the weeks ahead
Kris Boyd, a man who knows a thing or two about what it takes to win the big prize, is prepared to go one step further.
‘Hearts can afford now to potentially have a slip-up here and there,’ said the former Rangers and Kilmarnock forward.
‘But the chasing pack have lost that now. Celtic had a game at hand where they could have gone above Rangers and closed that gap on Hearts, but that’s gone now.
‘You also now need to add in the fact they’ve got to play each other at the weekend.
‘So, I think that when you take everything, Hearts are in a very, very good position right now.
‘There’s one thing about Hearts, whenever they’ve had that setback, they’ve been able to bounce back the following week.
‘You’re now looking at Rangers and Celtic, they’re going to have to do that at the weekend, and both of them cannot do it.
‘So, I personally feel as if whoever loses this game at Ibrox is out of the title race.’
Champions in 13 of the last 14 seasons, Celtic have players who have been over this course and distance before.
The trouble, from Martin O’Neill’s perspective, is the lack of form. Seven defeats in 27 Premiership games is already as many as the side suffered in the previous two years.
This isn’t a side that’s threatening to burst into life. It just looks lost.
We can now surely see that string of injury-time goals for what it was: a papering over of the cracks.
‘They’re in disarray with some of the things that’s happening,’ said Boyd.
‘You look at the performances, they’re miles off it.
‘Martin touched on it himself a couple of weeks ago. I said it after the Kilmarnock game. You can’t keep depending on last-minute goals.
‘The performances have not been good enough.’
While Rangers have improved under Danny Rohl, Boyd feels the same accusation could lately be made of his former side.
Notwithstanding the fact that Rangers were two goals down at Almondvale, drawing with a side who have won just once this season was a dreadful outcome.
The Ibrox men were also poor as they tripped up to Hibs and Motherwell in their two previous away games. There’s an awful lot of work to do if the German is to pull off this triumph.
‘They found a way to get themselves up for a game against Hearts because they felt as if it was a big game. It was a team at the top of the table, so they had to win it,’ Boyd said.
‘But when you look at the performances in the three away games, I don’t think they’ve been anywhere near that level.
‘Whether there’s an attitude where you think, “I’m just going to rock up and you’re going to win the game”, I don’t know.
‘If Rangers are going to deliver a title, you’ve got to be going to these places and winning, especially when you’re up against it and you’re chasing.
‘It’s three away games in a row now for Rangers that they’ve failed to win.
‘It’s something that Danny Rohl is going to have to sort.
‘Rangers have to find that … I don’t want to say balance, but they have to find something from within the group that they can start to get the same performance away from home as what they’re getting at home.
‘I don’t think the manager will have any problem getting his team up for Celtic at the weekend or Hearts or Motherwell or whoever at Ibrox. But his problem going forward is how to turn this away form.
‘I personally feel that Rangers have to get into that split some points ahead if they’re going to win the title – and I don’t mean just one or two.
‘I was looking at more or less four or five to try and have that buffer there.’
Hearts didn’t sparkle against Falkirk, but they didn’t have to. On the back of losing at Ibrox, a bounce-back victory by any margin was all that truly mattered.
McInnes’ side have a favourable run of games coming up after hosting the Dons – Kilmarnock (away), Dundee (home) and Livingston (away).
As Marvin Bartley’s side amply demonstrated against Rangers, there are no gimmes. Yet, without question, you’d far rather be facing sides residing in the bottom six.
With each passing week, Boyd is coming round to the view that the big two’s 41-year stranglehold on the big prize is loosening.
‘A lot of people laughed at Derek McInnes and had a go (by saying) that he was under pressure, that he was cracking,’ he added.
‘I mean, he must be the only manager that’s under pressure and cracking when he’s stating facts, and that’s the reality of it.
‘His team have been at the top of the table for a number of months now. The job he’s done is outstanding.
‘I think for a lot of people, especially in Glasgow right now, the reality is hitting home and that is that it might not be a team from Glasgow that wins the league for the first time in 41 years.
‘Over the course and distance of the season, Hearts have left the big two in Glasgow behind, whether that is on the field decisions, whether it’s off the field decisions.
‘I think there’s a proper structure in place at Tynecastle.
‘I think they’re well ahead of schedule. I don’t think even Tony Bloom would have been able to envisage this a few months ago.
‘I wouldn’t sit here and say it’s Hearts’ to lose. But they’re in a very good position.’
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Kris Boyd was speaking on behalf of William Hill, the SPFL’s title partner. Check out the weekly preview show: www.youtube.com/@WilliamHillSPFL
