LONDON, May 7 (Reuters) - The finish line is in sight for Heart of Midlothian as they seek to win their first Scottish title for 66 years and put an end to a seemingly unshakeable Glasgow duopoly.
Hearts travel to Motherwell on Saturday with a three-point lead before a home clash against Falkirk on Wednesday followed by a likely title showdown at Celtic on the final day next weekend.
For fans of the Edinburgh club, the week ahead promises to be an emotional roller-coaster ride and for those of a certain vintage the nightmare of 40 years ago will be all too vivid.
Leaders Hearts arrived at the final day of the 1985-86 season unbeaten in 27 league games, two points ahead of Celtic and requiring just a draw away at Dundee to claim their first title since 1960.
Everything appeared on track until Celtic fan Albert Kidd scored two late goals to give Dundee a 2-0 win at Dens Park. Meanwhile Celtic were romping to a 5-0 victory against St Mirren to snatch the title on goal difference.
The previous season, Alex Ferguson's Aberdeen were champions, but since then no club outside of Glasgow has got a look in, with cynics south of the border sneering that the best way to decide the Scottish title would be for Celtic and Rangers to play each other every week.
ONE-HORSE RACE
Only when Rangers were relegated to Scotland's bottom division in 2012 after going into liquidation did the duopoly end, although that merely turned the following seasons into a one-horse race with Celtic winning the next five titles by 16, 29, 17, 15 and 30 points respectively.
Since the 2018-19 season, normal service has been resumed with the two Glasgow giants operating in a league of their own, albeit with Rangers finishing runners-up six times to their arch-rivals in that time and only swapping the order once.
Celtic and Rangers have 55 Scottish titles each with Hearts, Hibernian and Aberdeen joint third on the list, with four.
Which is why the emergence of Hearts as title contenders under Derek McInnes has captured the imagination of those soccer fans who usually pay the Scottish game little attention.
"If you're looking at it from a neutral viewpoint, which I certainly am not, but if you were, then there's been excitement this season because Hearts have come up, thrown down the gauntlet to the two big teams and I think that can only be good for the (Premiership)," Celtic manager Martin O'Neill said.
'DISRUPT THE PATTERN OF DOMINATION'
One of the keys to Hearts' emergence was the 9.86 million pounds ($13.42 million) investment in 2025 by Brighton and Hove Albion owner Tony Bloom, whose data company Jamestown Analytics has crunched the numbers and come up with a formula to disrupt Scottish football.
"I firmly believe in the club's ability to disrupt the pattern of domination of Scottish football which has been in place for far too long," he said at the time.
Hearts fans could not have imagined the change would have happened so quickly after they finished last season in seventh place, 40 points behind Celtic.
Hope veered towards nervous expectation on Monday when Hearts came from a goal down to beat Rangers 2-1, all but knocking them out of the race.
If Hearts win at Motherwell on Saturday and beat Falkirk on May 13 and Celtic drop points, either at home to Rangers this weekend or away at Motherwell in midweek, Hearts would have the luxury of going to Parkhead next Saturday as champions.
No Hearts fans will be taking anything for granted, however, until the maroon ribbons are tied to the trophy with a double knot.
($1 = 0.7349 pounds)
(Reporting by Martyn HermanEditing by Toby Davis)
