{"id":673325,"date":"2026-05-15T20:47:09","date_gmt":"2026-05-15T20:47:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/673325\/"},"modified":"2026-05-15T20:47:09","modified_gmt":"2026-05-15T20:47:09","slug":"hearts-eye-immortality-but-oneill-revival-story-makes-celtic-a-formidable-obstacle-hearts","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/673325\/","title":{"rendered":"Hearts eye immortality but O\u2019Neill revival story makes Celtic a formidable obstacle | Hearts"},"content":{"rendered":"

This Hearts story did not begin with Stuart Findlay\u2019s late winner at Tannadice in August, a stoppage-time intervention from Alexandros Kyziridis against Livingston later that month or the September victory at Ibrox<\/a> that materially fuelled belief among Derek McInnes\u2019s squad. Brian Cormack, Alex Mackie, Jamie Bryant, Donald Ford and Garry Halliday will not feature in the Hearts team seeking to create history at Celtic Park but that quintet set this club on a path that after 16 years has almost \u2013 though only almost \u2013 reached the ultimate glory point.<\/p>\n

Cormack and Mackie joked back then, when among a group establishing the Foundation of Hearts<\/a>, that one day they would watch the team they love compete in the Champions League from a new main stand at Tynecastle Park. With the stand complete, Hearts will enter the Champions League\u2019s qualifying phase this summer. Humour proved prescient. In the west of Edinburgh, as Hearts pursue the point they need in Glasgow on Saturday to win the title for the first time since 1960, original FoH directors will gather to watch together. Their role in Hearts\u2019 rise should never be forgotten.<\/p>\n

In 2010, Hearts were under the erratic and later almost ruinous ownership of Vladimir Romanov. Five men had a plan. The FoH encountered naysayers, including from one individual who has reached a prominent position within Scottish football, with regards to their idea to shift Hearts towards supporter ownership. Enter Ann Budge, whose loan allowed FoH to extricate Hearts from administration. There have been bumps in the road, occasionally significant ones, since that transaction in the summer of 2013. However, not only are Hearts owned by the Foundation and its 9,000 members but one other stated ambition of those who established the group has been reached. Hearts are an investable, reputable business, backed after Budge by the Edinburgh philanthropist James Anderson and, much more recently, Tony Bloom. A serious club, run by serious people, deploying serious footballers.<\/p>\n

They sing Bloom\u2019s name at Hearts games these days. After the recent victory over Rangers<\/a>, Bloom quaffed with giddy punters in the Tynecastle Arms. A third of a mile away the Athletic Arms was reporting a day of record takings, duly surpassed by Wednesday and the occasion of Hearts beating Falkirk<\/a> to take the Scottish title race to game 38 of 38. The Hearts ticket allocation at Celtic is only 752; pubs in Gorgie will again be filled to capacity.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe all understand who we represent,\u201d says McInnes, the manager. \u201cYou\u2019ve seen the emotion in the stadium all season but particularly of late when people started to believe that this could actually happen. We understand this is a huge club. We are not as huge as the team we\u2019re playing and everything that goes with that in terms of finances and all the rest of it. We have been an underdog.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe odds will tell you at the start of the season Hearts won\u2019t win the league and nobody would really bet on Hearts to win the league. But at this stage of the season we\u2019ve got a belief that we can do it. Of course we can. We know there\u2019s a lot of goodwill towards us trying to win the league and hopefully we can go and do it.<\/p>\n

Hearts fans pump up the optimism after the win over Rangers earlier this month. Photograph: Russell Cheyne\/Reuters<\/p>\n

\u201cThe good thing for me is the confidence I feel in the players is so strong. We have to go there with courage, we have to go there with belief and be bullish with our work. I think they\u2019ll always be regarded as a special team. But obviously if we want to elevate that. We have to go and win it.\u201d McInnes\u2019s tone at Hearts has consistently been pitch-perfect.<\/p>\n

Bloom\u2019s near-\u00a310m funding of Hearts was important. More so, though, was his language last summer. Bloom\u2019s assertion that he could disrupt the Scottish game instantly caught the imagination of a supporter base who had been moulded into a mindset that title challenges were impossible. McInnes determined after two rounds of fixtures that his players could go the distance; and told them as much.<\/p>\n

How the title battle unfolded<\/a><\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019ll be bedlam, it\u2019ll be an unbelievable atmosphere just because of what\u2019s at stake,\u201d says McInnes of the final day. \u201cThere might be people out there who think everything\u2019s back on script, Celtic<\/a> win their home game, win the league, and that\u2019s what Celtic have done for the last wee while. They\u2019ve been the team that win more titles but we\u2019ve ripped the script up so often this season and we\u2019ve got one more in us I think. It\u2019s up to us to try and make that happen.\u201d<\/p>\n

Gary Mackay\u2019s terrific goal for Hearts against Clydebank in the penultimate game of the 1985-86 league season triggered a verse of \u201cChampionees\u201d from the Tynecastle terracing. There has been no repeat of the chant, especially this season. No one wants to tempt fate. On the following Saturday 40 years ago, Hearts\u2019 dreams were shattered by two Dundee goals in the last seven minutes at Dens Park. Then, as now, Hearts needed a draw to be champions. Then, as now, Celtic were the other team in the title frame in the midst of an excellent run of form. There is a reason Hearts had a long-running fanzine named Always The Bridesmaid.<\/p>\n

The last-day defeat at Dundee in 1986 that denied Hearts the title looms large in their fans\u2019 collective memory. Photograph: Bob Thomas Sports Photography\/Getty Images<\/p>\n

Fairytales do not win trophies. Fairytales are also not solely the domain of Hearts. Martin O\u2019Neill, at 74 and in a second interim managerial spell in one season at Celtic, will complete a sensational personal triumph should his team retain the flag. In a world of laptop coaching and training-ground flannel, O\u2019Neill\u2019s straightforward approach has been welcome. Neutrals who will cheer for Hearts should realise Celtic are the odds-on favourites.<\/p>\n

\u201cMartin has done an unbelievable job,\u201d says McInnes. \u201cThe Celtic board made a brilliant decision in bringing him back. I don\u2019t know if there\u2019s anybody else, certainly very few, who\u2019d be able to navigate them back into this position. It\u2019s the players, obviously, but Martin deserves a lot of credit for that. He\u2019ll probably put that on the players, knowing him. He\u2019s a fine man, he\u2019s done a brilliant job, and we shouldn\u2019t be surprised that Celtic have got themselves into this position and a chance to regain their title by winning.\u201d<\/p>\n

This has been no ordinary Celtic season. The very game where McInnes sensed an attitude change and swagger in the Hearts team, the 3-1 defeat of Celtic<\/a> in late October, proved Brendan Rodgers\u2019 last as the manager. Rodgers departed with stinging \u2013 and over the top \u2013 criticism from Celtic\u2019s main shareholder, Dermot Desmond. There has been dispute between boardroom and supporter base, a chair\u2019s resignation<\/a> owing to abuse, the appointment of the worst manager in Celtic\u2019s history in Wilfried Nancy and a January transfer window that optimists would describe as awful.<\/p>\n

Martin O\u2019Neill is hoping to sign off at Celtic with a double. \u2018He has done an unbelievable job,\u2019 admits Hearts\u2019 manager, Derek McInnes. Photograph: Jamie Johnston\/Focus Images Ltd\/Shutterstock<\/p>\n

O\u2019Neill has managed not only to outperform Rangers and a \u00a340m Ibrox spend but, with a Scottish Cup final against Dunfermline to come, stands on the verge of a domestic double. O\u2019Neill has an itch to scratch, having lost leagues on the final day of the season in 2003 and 2005 during his first Celtic tenure. This Celtic squad, which will be subject to a summer overhaul, fancies a last hurrah.<\/p>\n

McInnes has a Scottish managerial icon in his corner. Sir Alex Ferguson apparently does not care that his record of being the last manager to win a title for a club other than Celtic or Rangers, with Aberdeen in 1985, may be broken. Instead, Ferguson has bought fully into a scenario he once revelled in, that of giving the Glasgow giants a bloody nose. \u201cHe sent me a brilliant message yesterday morning,\u201d McInnes says. \u201cA brilliant message, actually. I took a lot from that and I\u2019ll no doubt speak to him before the game.\u201d<\/p>\n

On 16 May 1998, Hearts ended a tortuous 36-year wait for a major honour courtesy of an exhausting Scottish Cup final win over Rangers at Celtic Park. Grown men in maroon shed tears of joy. On 16 May 2026, at the same venue, McInnes and his players will stand on the verge of footballing immortality. They form part of a much bigger, endearing picture.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"This Hearts story did not begin with Stuart Findlay\u2019s late winner at Tannadice in August, a stoppage-time intervention…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":673326,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[563],"tags":[64,63,596,85],"class_list":["post-673325","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-football","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-football","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/673325","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=673325"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/673325\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/673326"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=673325"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=673325"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=673325"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}