Celtic win record 56th title after final-day comeback against Hearts

Celtic turned a one-point chase into a championship celebration at Celtic Park, coming from behind to beat Hearts 3-1 and secure a record 56th Scottish top-flight title. The win moved Celtic ahead of Rangers in the all-time standings and ended Hearts’ 250-day stay at the top with the Edinburgh club finishing two points behind.

Martin O’Neill had framed the run-in as a simple demand, seven wins from seven, and Celtic met the pressure with the kind of stretch that kept the title race alive until the final whistle of the season. Three league games from the end, Celtic were three points behind Hearts. A 3-1 victory over Rangers cut that gap to one point with two matches left, and a dramatic 3-2 win at Motherwell, sealed by Kelechi Iheanacho’s last-gasp penalty, forced the showdown on the final day.

Hearts struck first through Lawrence Shankland, giving their supporters hope that a first title since 1960 might still survive another swing of momentum. Celtic levelled through Arne Engels from the penalty spot, then took control late through Daizen Maeda and Callum Osmand, whose goals completed the comeback and set off celebrations inside a packed Celtic Park. After the winning goal, Celtic fans spilled onto the pitch, turning the decider into a scene of release after weeks of tension.

The result also gave O’Neill a landmark of his own. Celtic said the manager, in his second spell at the club this season, had the chance to win his first league title since 2004, when he last lifted the championship as Celtic boss. The context carried extra weight because a previous trip to Fir Park as Celtic manager had ended in title disappointment in the closing stages of the 2004-05 season, when Scott McDonald scored a late double for Rangers.

For Celtic, the comeback completed a fifth straight Premiership title and reinforced the club’s domestic grip at a moment when Hearts had spent most of the campaign in control. For Hearts, it was a bitter ending to a season that had stretched across 250 days at the summit before slipping away in the final act.