Hearts Chase Scottish Premiership Title at Celtic Park After Derek McInnes Calls To Rip Up Script

Heart of Midlothian arrived at Celtic Park needing only to avoid defeat to secure their first league championship since 1960, with the Scottish Premiership title on the line in a final-day showdown against Celtic.

“- Published For eight months Celtic chased Hearts at the top of the Scottish Premiership”

BBC

Derek McInnes said it was “pure box office” and challenged his “special” Hearts team to “rip up the script” as they aimed to win the William Hill Premiership title if they avoided defeat at second-placed Celtic.

BBC

STV News said Celtic were handed a lifeline on Wednesday when they defeated Motherwell with a contentiously awarded stoppage-time spot-kick, and McInnes branded the decision “disgusting” after his side’s victory over Falkirk.

BBC described an eight-month chase in which Celtic stayed in the fight, and it said that with 11 minutes left Kelechi Iheanacho hit a post and with 10 to go Benjamin Nygren forced a dramatic save out of Alexander Schwolow.

BBC also said that “Only a dozen minutes of normal time remained” and that Celtic were drawing, which meant Hearts were winning the league as the match entered its final stretch.

McInnes told STV News that he did not want to get bogged down in talk about referees, saying “It’s a perfect ending to a season for the league, for Scottish football, for drama and excitement,” ahead of Scotland’s first final-day title shootout since 1991.

STV News added that McInnes said “It’ll be bedlam, it’ll be an unbelievable atmosphere,” while also noting Hearts would have fewer than 1,000 supporters at the 60,000-capacity Celtic Park.

streamlinefeed.co.ke

BBC described the late stages as Celtic piled forward as the “late-goal kings of Scotland” and said that with 11 minutes left Kelechi Iheanacho hit a post and with 10 to go Benjamin Nygren forced a dramatic save out of Alexander Schwolow.

BBC also said that after more than half an hour Celtic had registered zero shots on target and had just two touches of the ball in Hearts' penalty area, before Lawrence Shankland’s back-post header put Hearts ahead.

The BBC account then shifted to the moment Celtic found their breakthrough, describing Arne Engels providing one goal from the penalty spot and Daizen Maeda landing the critical blow as Hearts tried to respond in the added time.

BBC said Celtic eventually scored the goal that “ultimately won the title,” describing how it took until three minutes from the end of the 90 for Celtic to get their nose in front.

“Derek McInnes is intent on parking the controversy around refereeing decisions for another day as he challenged his “special” Hearts team to “rip up the script” by becoming champions of Scotland for the first time since 1960”

STV News

In the same BBC narrative, it said Hearts were champions with nine minutes to play, eight minutes, seven minutes, and that Hearts were winning the league before Celtic’s late surge, with the match entering “eight minutes of added time.”

BBC also reported that Celtic fans invaded the pitch, calling it “an outpouring of emotion” that “career[ed] so far over the line as to be an outrage,” and it said an investigation will be launched; swift and with proper punishments, you'd hope.

STV News framed the match as a culmination of pressure, with McInnes saying “There’s been a lot of pressure on our lads for a long time now,” and that he was “not concerned” about nerves as the game approached.

BBC concluded its account by describing Osmand breaking away to score seconds before the end, with “two team-mates running in his slipstream with every man,” as the title race ended at Celtic Park.