Thursday May 14th 2026
Written by Midlothian View Reporter, Adam Bowen
It was the day Hearts fans had been dreaming of for years, let alone this season. A win and a Celtic loss and they would be lifting the premiership trophy at full time.
The fans understood the occasion as the atmosphere before the game was absolutely electric.
Falkirk however started well, slowing the game down and putting pressure on Hearts. It was Falkirk who put the ball in the back of the net first. Miller ran onto the ball, driving into the box taking his time before composedly slotting it into the far bottom corner. The majority of the stadium believed it was offside and so did the linesman putting his flag up as soon as the ball hit the net, cutting the travelling fans celebrations short.
Not long after, random cheers from the crowd caused some confusion but then word went round that Motherwell had scored against Celtic sending the stadium into pandemonium.
With a very loud backing, at the half an hour mark Kyziridis’ corner found a leaping Frankie Kent who headed the ball from the 6-yard box powering past the Falkirk keeper, Hogarth.
Only a few minutes later Shankland drove into the box falling over as he was tackled, but the ball fell to Devlin whose shot was deflected over the top of Hogarth, looping into the back of the net.
With Hearts two up and Celtic trailing you could feel the belief around the stadium with non-stop singing creating an enormously loud atmosphere.
A great save from Schwolow kept Hearts going into the break 2-0 up however a goal five minutes before half time for Celtic dampened the mood slightly at Tynecastle Park.
The second half was majorly in Hearts possession, not looking very threatened by Falkirk, the focus was more on the Celtic game.
Celtic were 2-1 up until Motherwell equalised in the 85th minute sending the Hearts fans into full voice again.
Dreamland got even dreamier for the fans in maroon as Spittal’s curling shot from the edge of the box flew into the bottom corner putting Hearts 3-0 up minutes after the Motherwell equaliser.
Hearts fans pushed their team to keep going for another one to gain an even greater advantage on goal difference, but the 4th never came.
Nonetheless, Hearts ended the game 3-0 with Celtic’s game still going. As it stood Hearts would go to Celtic Park on the weekend and leave as champions as long as they did not lose by three or more goals.
However, a late Celtic penalty VAR check changed the atmosphere dramatically in Tynecastle as they awaited the decision. The penalty was given with Iheanacho converting it.
A bouncing Tynecastle was now a more subdued one however the fans still rallied the players on to do them proud on Saturday.
McInnes said that he was ‘very pleased’ with his team’s performance and compared the title decider this Saturday to boxing where Hearts are going to have to go to the champions and take what they want to be theirs.
Referring to the penalty at Fir Park this evening he called the situation ‘disgusting’ alluding to the fact that Hearts missed out on two contentious penalties at Fir Park just last weekend. He said he feels like it’s ‘us against everyone else’ but his team will use that drive to go and get the job done on Saturday at a ‘rocking’ Celtic Park.
Devlin credited the crowd for their ‘amazing’ support saying how it ‘really helped’ them tonight. He said that his goal felt really ‘special’ and was ‘emotional’ due to the fact his loved ones from Australia were in the stands tonight. He spoke about feeling ‘privileged’ to have been at the club for so long now and that the team is so ‘desperate’ to win the league.
A very dramatic night of football which will be followed by Saturday at Celtic Park where a whole season will come down to one last 90 minutes, where history could be made.
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