As every fan of Scottish football knows, a match doesn’t have to be of the highest quality to be enthralling. It doesn’t have to be a tactical masterclass punctuated by poise and composure from world-class players. In fact, it very often helps when it isn’t.
That much was clear at Ibrox today, as well as at Rugby Park earlier in the afternoon, as the latest epic episode of this remarkable Premiership title race proved to be everything that has made it such a wonderful contradiction: gloriously flawed, manically unpredictable, and all the better for it.
Let’s be honest, the simultaneous ineptitude of both Celtic and Rangers, off the pitch as well as on it, has made this astonishing campaign possible.
Hearts have been magnificent, but would they be top of the table in any other year?
Derek McInnes and his overachieving players are still up there leading the way, although their 4-2 defeat at Rangers, coupled with Celtic’s dramatic 3-2 win over Kilmarnock, means that a mere three points separate the sides as we move into the season’s final quarter. Don’t you just love it?
Twice Rangers came from behind at Ibrox before pulling away with a Youssef Chermiti hat-trick in a magnificently madcap, warts’n’all classic that was a better advert for the game in these parts than any marketing guru could have dreamed up. This game, this season, is how Scottish football was meant to be.
Youssef Chermiti celebrates scoring his third goal in Rangers’ 4-2 win over Hearts at Ibrox
Julian Araujo takes off to join the Celtic support after his stoppage-time winner at Rugby Park
Hearts boss Derek McInnes watches his team slip to a defeat that cut their lead to two points
There was quality, of course. Claudio Braga’s header for Hearts’ second goal was achieved with an Alan Shearer-like twist of the neck that sent the ball spinning superbly into the top corner.
Djeidi Gassama’s lung-bursting box-to-box run that set up Chermiti’s last-minute third was quite sensational.
And yet, the game wouldn’t have been what it was without the most chaotic of interludes.
Like Manny Fernandez passing to Nico Raskin when the latter wasn’t looking, an aberration that led to Marc Leonard’s opener. And the impromptu game of pinball in Hearts’ six-yard box, when Chermiti and Mikey Moore were both denied before substitute Michael Steinwender put into his own net.
The error-strewn drama, the late goal, the bouncing atmosphere … we hadn’t seen anything like this since, oh, about two hours earlier, when two brilliant goals, by Tyreece John-Jules and Sebastian Tounekti, complemented questionable goalkeeping by Kasper Schmeichel, some static Kilmarnock defending and Julian Araujo’s thrilling 97th-minute winner.
What a day it was. Rangers, who were 13 behind at one stage, are now just two off the pace. Celtic will draw level if they win their game in hand, although Hearts have shown already that they can respond well to setbacks.
Don’t forget Motherwell, the team who are arguably the most pleasing on the eye. They have lost only one league match since mid-October and will move to within five points of Rangers and seven of Hearts if they win their game in hand.
You can keep your Bundesliga, EPL and Serie A. This might not be the highest quality title race in Europe, but it’s surely one of the best.
