Derek McInnes has discussed his conversations with Celtic fans amid the Scottish Premiership title race.
The Hearts boss finds himself closer than ever to a historic title win, but with nine games remaining, there are bound to be more twists and turns.
A three-way race is something we haven’t been used to in Scottish football, and if Celtic lose to fourth-placed Motherwell on Sunday, it becomes a four-way tussle.
The unique circumstances have McInnes getting some strange comments from supporters of the Glasgow clubs.
How many points will Celtic end the season with?
Will it be enough to win the league? 😅
Hearts boss Derek McInnes on Celtic and Rangers fan comments
McInnes said ahead of Hearts’ trip to Kilmarnock this weekend: “I live in the West, so I normally get Rangers fans saying, ‘if we don’t win it, I hope you win it’, and I get Celtic fans saying, ‘if we don’t win it, I hope you win it’.
“It doesn’t really matter what’s getting said.
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“I think there’s still a lot of people out there who think it’s still maybe a step too far for us. But we can’t really get caught up in that, we’ve just got to concentrate on winning games of football.
“I’ve said all along that I think we can win enough games to be in the fight, and I think that’s played out. The business end of the season is still to come, but we’ve certainly put ourselves in a position.
“We’re enjoying where we are. I got asked earlier, ‘how many points do you think it will take’? Nobody knows.
“We can all surmise and we can guess, but nobody would have guessed that Hearts would be where we are after this length of time.
“We’re in a great position. It’s down to the efforts of the players, how well they’ve done. The focus has been great. The last couple of performances have really pleased us in the sense that we’ve got the desired outcome, but the performances have been good as well.”
There are now four games remaining until the split, after which all of the league’s top teams will face off again in an enthralling end to the campaign.
Celtic’s run of fixtures before the the SPFL split.
How many points are we picking up from these?
Celtic’s pre-split fixtures vs Hearts’
After facing Motherwell on Saturday, Martin O’Neill’s men face back-to-back trips to Dundee, where they have already lost to both clubs this season.
They then welcome St Mirren to Celtic Park before playing them again in the Scottish Cup semi-final. The Buddies will likely have a new manager in place by then, with Stephen Robinson leaving for Aberdeen this week.
McInnes will return to his previous club when Hearts play at Rugby Park on Saturday night, before Dundee travel to Tynecastle.
After a short trip to face bottom side Livingston, Hearts close off the regular season with a tough home clash with Motherwell, who were pegged back from 3-0 up on their last visit to Gorgie.
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