Hearts: How are Scottish Premiership leaders handling pressure?
While those elements all give Hearts confidence, the team who arrives into the final five games in the best form is Rangers.
In the last 12 games, Danny Rohl’s side have taken five more points than Hearts and are just one behind in second place.
Martin O’Neill’s Celtic have gathered three more than Hearts over the same period, and the league leaders have suffered three of their five losses this term in those last 12 matches.
Hearts’ performances have dropped slightly in the second half of the season, which is why Rangers and Celtic have slowly closed the gap despite their own flaws.
Undoubtedly the absence of striker, joint top scorer, and captain Lawrence Shankland from January until late March has affected that, as well as influential midfielder Cammy Devlin for a similar period.
Midfielders Oisin McEntee and Tomas Magnussen missing the rest of the campaign is a blow, but left-back Harry Milne is due back soon and centre-back Stuart Findlay made his comeback against Motherwell.
Rangers have the form. Celtic, meanwhile, have the most experience of winning the league in their squad and dugout, which the Hearts boss believes is a factor, if far from being critical.
“It doesn’t give them any guarantees, but it certainly does help them,” he said.
“I don’t get caught up in that too much, to be honest. Really, it’s performances and just getting results and getting them any way you can at this stage.
“I understand that [narrative], but I actually don’t think in the cold light of day it’s the most important thing.”
