McInnes on the brink of fear and loathing as Celtic move within striking distance.

Last night, to the surprise of nobody who actually pays attention and who has been unimpressed by all the hype surrounding Hearts, they lost at Kilmarnock. There are eight games to go. The gap between them and us is now two points. Additionally, there are only three goals in it.

The simple fact is that Celtic now has its future in its own hands. Win our remaining games and we win the title. This is the worst possible position for our rivals to find themselves in.

They are not facing the best Celtic side of the generation. We all know this. This is not a secret. However, they are facing one that is every bit as determined and has every bit as much will to win as any Celtic side that has come before it.

This team knows how to get the job done. It knows how to operate under intense pressure. Hell Week turned out to be the forging of this team. It was the making of this team. These players now know they can handle anything.

They are not going to get every break of the ball. I do not think we are going to win every game. However, I believe we have enough and I believe we will win enough of them to be champions.

There is just something about this side and its ability to win when it matters.

There has been a lot of hype surrounding Hearts this season. If Hearts were as good as everyone says they are, they would not have blown the momentum they had over the Ibrox club. They would not have blown the leads they have had twice now over Celtic.

Those leads were cemented, in the case of the Ibrox club, at a time when that club was on its knees. The lead over us was cemented at a time when we had a chance to beat them at Celtic Park and go top. We all know what happened in that game. However, other than the Wilfred Nancy period, I think we would be comfortably clear of them.

I never thought Hearts would go the distance because I didn’t believe in the Great Hearts Myth.

I didn’t buy the Derek McInnes myth either.

In almost any other year, even on their current trajectory, even with their current points total, which is likely to be higher than it has been for Hearts in a very long time, we would still be comfortably ahead. We would be looking at a points total somewhere in the mid-90s rather than the low 80s, which is where the title race appears to be heading this season.

Some of the football we played in the second half yesterday was excellent. It would comfortably be enough to beat teams like Hearts off the park.

With every single game we have played over the past month the confidence of this team has grown. To come out of Ibrox with a draw after being two nil down at half time was impressive. In the second half we played excellent football and they were fortunate that we only took a point.

Then there was the cup game, where O’Neill’s tactical approach delivered a result even though we had an even more depleted team. That was remarkable. The result in Aberdeen and the result in Stuttgart only added to the sense that this is a side finding its feet at exactly the right moment in the campaign.

In the aftermath of last night’s match, McInnes spoke to the media and said that he told the players in the dressing room that they would wake up the next morning still top of the league with eight games remaining.

He is right about that.

However, he also knows how difficult the run-in is going to be. At this stage he cannot deny that reality even to himself. Their moment will come. I firmly believe that.

At some point in this campaign their lead will disappear entirely.

At some point they will find themselves behind. It is the fear of that moment which is driving much of the anxiety around Hearts right now.

There were periods this season when they held a double-digit lead. There were times when all they had to do was keep winning and avoid slipping up. That gap has now shrunk to the point where they cannot afford to slip at all.

The pressure that creates is enormous.

Thirty games into the season they still have a chance. McInnes never expected to have a chance when the campaign began. However, they also had a sizeable lead which should have made these final games easier.

Instead the opposite has happened.

The run-in is now filled with tension and stress. Every match is dangerous. Every match is a potential disaster.

What else do you call it when a team holds a double-digit lead over two clubs that seemed almost pathologically determined to destroy themselves and still fails to close the deal?

That would be a disaster.

Everyone at Tynecastle knows it. They know the history. They know what happened at Love Street on Albert Kidd Day. For a long time I thought the fear of that would paralyse them with dread.

Now it is not even about that anymore.

Hearts might not finish first. They might not even finish second.

When you consider the scale of that possibility, the failure becomes even greater than simply missing out on the title.

Personally, I do not care what happens to Hearts if they finish third. I do not care what happens to Derek McInnes either. There is a possibility that it opens the door to Ibrox for him. I remain unconcerned.

I have never considered him a particularly good manager. The idea that he might be the man who wrestles the title from a properly functioning Celtic side is laughable.

A second place finish for Hearts will be hailed as proof that the Tony Bloom miracle is on course. However, Hearts would then run straight into the difficult second-season problem.

They would be playing in Europe. They would have more matches. Their squad would be stretched more thinly and would be more vulnerable to burnout and injury. They will never again be as fortunate as they were this season when both halves of Glasgow spent long periods imploding.

There are people at Hearts who understand this. They know this year represented the perfect storm. A schedule with many free midweeks combined with both Glasgow clubs repeatedly stumbling over themselves.

None of that is to say Hearts have done nothing right. They have clearly recruited well. McInnes is capable of organising a team and coaching them effectively.

However, it is not enough and it was never going to be enough.

This has been an exceptional season by their standards. Yet they still went out of both cup competitions embarrassingly early. Much of the story around them has therefore been hype. McInnes has been at the centre of that before.

Last night’s BBC match report was written in a tone of shock and suggested that nobody could have foreseen the result.

Perhaps nobody inside the Scottish media bubble.

Some of us saw it coming a mile away.

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