🔗 Share this article

HEARTS ON FIRE

Perhaps the sole surprising aspect of Heart of Midlothian's triumph over the Glasgow giants in the Scottish Premiership was the extent to which surprised people seemed when news of the result and its consequences for the summit of the table circulated. Although this convincing victory at Tynecastle, which leaves the Edinburgh side top of the table and eight points ahead of Celtic, was earth-shattering in nature, no one who has been tracking the fortunes of both team this season will have been in the least astonished by the result.

Over the last four decades, the dominance of two Glasgow clubs of Celtic and Rangers have carved up the Scottish football between them, reducing the beautiful game to something of a punchline in the meantime. Several matches into the present campaign it has become apparent that Heart of Midlothian – who number Stephen Hendry, Olympic champion and Ken Stott among their celebrity fans – might just be ready to make their move while the Glasgow duo influence is freezing cold.

THE CHAMPIONS' SLUMP

While a lot of the attention in the Scottish game has been on the disastrous season being suffered by the Ibrox club, the full-spectrum nightmare of the circumstances at Ibrox has meant that the title holders' comparatively less severe decline has been allowed to fester unnoticed. The defending title winners have already dropped a considerable number from nine fixtures this term under their manager. The Celtic manager has acquired the thousand-yard stare of a man who can't stop checking his schedule to find out how many time are remaining until his deal expires, and awoke this day to discover the number is 246.

"I've never worked harder in all my time here," he told reporters following the loss, after they had questioned his appetite for anything resembling a title fight. "Therefore the drive is present to try and reverse the levels that we're at. It's absolutely fine, there is plenty of time."

EDINBURGH DISRUPTOR

Given the dreadful beginning to the campaign being endured by the other Glasgow side, Rodgers and his players could normally be expected to get away with their own inability to roar out of the traps, but on this occasion an Edinburgh disruptor has joined the fray. In spite of being obliged to function with a war-chest that isn't so much a small portion of Celtic's as a comparative budgetary baw-hair, Hearts have added the money and expertise of Tony Bloom to the Scottish Premiership mix. As well as putting in ten million pounds during the off-season, the Premier League figurehead has provided the club exclusive use of his highly confidential analytics-based proprietary scouting player identification system.

In an Irish defender, a Greek talent and a Brazilian prospect it has enabled them to discover unpolished gems from Walsall, the Slovak first division and the Norwegian second tier, among other lesser-known leagues, for the total price of a modest car. Seen at Tynecastle on Sunday wearing a Hearts scarf, the notoriously astute professional gambler could be seen cheering each goal with the enthusiasm of a man who had almost certainly realized the oddsmakers had massively misjudged his side's prospects of beating the out-of-sorts title holders, and filled his boots accordingly.

COACH'S REACTION

"In my opinion it's a statement win," said the facial-haired Hearts gaffer Derek McInnes after his side's most recent success, their eighth in nine outings. "Perhaps it is for those on the outside looking in. It could alter perceptions. It might validate opinions that there's a tightrope. But let's not kid ourselves, we are delighted with what the lads have given us. In terms of skill, we look in a good place, and definitely in fitness we look in a good place, so long may that continue. Of course, this is not a situation that this club is accustomed to being in." Correct, the manager, it is not. But the wonderful, analytics-backed truth is that for the initial occasion in many years, Scottish football might genuinely have a title race that a team other than Celtic or Rangers can claim.