Hearts dig deep at Motherwell as title race tightens, six games remain

Hearts left Fir Park with a point, and with the Scottish Premiership title race no calmer for it. Derek McInnes’s side stayed top by one point heading into the post-split run-in, with six games left and three direct meetings between Hearts, Rangers and Celtic still to come.

The Scottish Professional Football League confirmed the post-split fixtures on 7 April, and the list did little to soften the pressure. Hearts were due at Easter Road against Hibernian on Sunday 26 April at 4.30pm on Sky Sports, before later facing Rangers and Celtic in the final weeks. For a club chasing its first Scottish title since 1985, and the first league crown won by a side outside Rangers or Celtic since then, every round now carried the weight of a season-defining test.

That is why McInnes has treated the closing stretch as opportunity rather than burden. He described Hearts’ final five matches as “brilliant” and said the dressing room was “pretty relaxed” despite the scrutiny that has gathered around the club’s bid to turn a slender lead into history. The message from Tynecastle has been that mentality, not nerves, will determine whether Hearts can hold their place at the top.

The point at Motherwell fit that narrative. Hearts arrived at Fir Park carrying fitness concerns, with Cammy Devlin and Harry Milne among those doubtful or unavailable, and other key players working through knocks. On a night when the game was frenetic and the margins thin, Hearts dug in to take something from a fixture that underlined how little room there is for error at this stage of the race.

Motherwell had their own stakes in the match. Jens Berthel Askou said his team were also playing for a “huge prize” as they pushed for European football, and that urgency helped turn the contest into another demanding examination for Hearts. A 0-0 draw between the sides at Fir Park on 29 November 2025 had already shown how tight these meetings could be, and this latest encounter reinforced that pattern.

With six games remaining and the top three still scheduled to meet one another, the championship race remains volatile rather than merely dramatic. Hearts have bought themselves time, but not comfort, and the next slip could be decisive.