A dramatic Edinburgh derby win in Gorgie on Tuesday, followed by a mouthwatering top-of-the-table clash with Rangers as Heart of Midlothian take a five-point lead to Govan on Sunday afternoon.
As well as being a big week, it has been a busy week, beyond the football.
The title tilt continues to generate significant interest.
Just this week, the Hearts media team have accomodated Canal + at the Edinburgh derby with a French reporter and cameraman in town to cover one of the biggest stories in football this season.
Football Focus have been in Edinburgh, putting together a feature on the league leaders ahead of Sunday’s massive fixture. And even Radio 4 have ventured to the Capital to shine a light on Scottish football and what’s happening in EH11.
This is just a flavour of the interest that has followed Hearts this season. It has come from England, the United States and Canada. Greece and Portugal. Kazakhstan and Australia. And more.
A few months ago, many would not have seen Hearts keeping pace in the title race. It was a nice wee start. A nice wee story. Nothing more. But it has continued.
Yet, even now, a few are still sceptical about the team’s longevity going up against Celtic and Rangers.
“I understand why there are still sceptics out there. It is unusual to see Hearts where they are with 12 games to go,” he said.
“I think it was early on, when we went top in September, ‘oh good old Hearts’. And then October, ‘what a good story’. And then November, December…
“But since then, we are starting to annoy a few people: ‘Why are they still there?’ People can’t quite get their heads around it.
“For me, we are there, we are enjoying what we are doing. We are overachieving. There are two or three teams who are overachieving, I think we are one of them.
“We feel comfortable where we are and the fact we are challenging teams of Rangers and Celtic’s quality and resources says a lot for what is being done. We are just hoping we can do all we can to try and maintain it, to keep doing what we are doing.”
Sunday presents another opportunity to further enhance those title credentials. That is, if they can be enhanced any further, considering they have been top for over 140 days come kick-off.
Coming into the week, Rangers thought they would have the chance to overtake Hearts in the league. That’s no longer the case. The Jam Tarts sit five points clear, a buffer to ensure that whatever happens on Sunday, they will remain top heading into a run of six fixtures where they will face four of the bottom six.
Not that the players or management team will be changing the approach that has served them well this season.
“For us, we see the significance of the game clearly, but I think it’s from our point of view, from my point of view, that nothing’s going to get decided on Sunday – win, lose or draw. But I don’t want to mistake that for us wanting to do anything other than go and win the game. We see this as a brilliant opportunity to go there and win the game if we can,” McInnes said.
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“So we understand the importance of the three points for both teams. But for us, we just need to concentrate on the performance and I don’t think that anything’s going to get decided on win, lose or draw.
“Every game is vitally important. Whether you are playing Rangers in a top of the table clash and then you have Falkirk and Aberdeen and teams fighting relegation and all the rest of it.
“There has been a lot of late winners over the course of the last few games – teams are playing to win, the Kilmarnocks, St Mirrens, Livi. All these teams, wherever they are in the league, need wins. No one is playing for draws. There is a commitment from teams to try and win games.
“That is why you see so much drama towards the end of the game. We have thankfully benefited mostly from that, although we suffered at St Mirren. Hopefully, we can just try and keep winning games and doing what we are doing.”
There has been plenty of talk about pressure going into Sunday’s game. While Danny Rohl has spoken of the pressure on the league leaders, there is an understanding from within at Rangers that it is a huge game for them, some would even say a ‘must-win’ after dropping points to 10-man Motherwell on Wednesday.
McInnes had planned to attend that match with assistant Alan Archibald, but his ticket was taken by Archibald’s son after the Hearts boss “made the mistake of going home for dinner first”. It meant he watched the game on TV instead.
Hearts also have the confidence and evidence of their ability to get a result at Ibrox. It is not a fixture that has the same fear factor. They won there earlier in the season and in their five games against the Old Firm, they have won four this campaign.
McInnes isn’t required to make the sales pitch to his players to convince them they can win. They already know it.
Hearts won at Ibrox the last time they visited. (Image: Stuart Wallace / Shutterstock)
“I think it is clear, it has come from the players and manager that this is a must-win game. Regardless of the Motherwell game, they would have been looking at this as a game they’d be looking to win, which you would expect,” he said.
“It was well documented the last time before we went to Ibox how poor our record as a club is there. So it’s a good reference point for us that we’ve actually won these types of games.
“But sometimes, as a manager, your job is to be a salesman when you go to a sales department in Ibrox to convince your players.
“You set your team up the best way you can to get a result. Technically, tactically, physically, you’ve got to be on point. But I think sometimes mentally as well, make sure that the players’ approach is spot on and I think that’s what we’ve had.
“The one at Ibox, we had to do so much right in the game to go there and win. It’s obviously a different Rangers team now in the sense that there’s a lot of players that will play on Sunday against us that didn’t play that game.
“Rangers recruited well in January. I think they identified the areas that they wanted and they got everything they wanted. Whether that was at left-back, a No.6, a wide right player and a centre forward. They’ve spent a bit of money to get that in, so they’ve obviously really invested to make those necessary adjustments.
“I think Rangers have shown a strength through January and are obviously in decent form. But I still think we feel we’ve got a performance in us that can win the game.
“So the feeling from our point of view is that we’re going there to win and hopefully we can do that. But whether we win, whether we don’t, we don’t think that anything will be decided off the back of it.”