'Hearts can win title the hard way after gut-wrenching penalty'

Hearts-supporting MP Ian Murray has backed Derek McInnes' side to win the title "the hard way" after Celtic's "gut-wrenching" penalty set up a final-day decider at Parkhead.

Kelechi Iheanacho's spot-kick deep in added time - awarded after Sam Nicholson was deemed to have handball the ball from a Celtic throw-in - kept the defending champions a point behind Hearts, who beat Falkirk 3-0.

It means Hearts will be crowned Scottish champions for the first time in 66 years only if they avoid defeat at Celtic Park on Saturday.

Speaking on the BBC's Mornings programme, former Scottish secretary and lifelong Hearts fan Murray criticised the "inconsistency" that led to Celtic being awarded the spot-kick when when his own team had been denied "two clearer penalties" at the weekend.

"I don't think that it was a penalty," he said.

"People should throw a ball at each other today and see if they can get a ball to go back out for a throw-in just by hitting it with a hand.

"It just would not do that. And I think it's just the inconsistency of it.

"It's gut-wrenching. It's devastating, and everyone seems to be against us.

"If we're going to win this title, we're going to do it the hard way.

"We've just got to keep believing we can get it, and if we do it on Saturday, all of this have become pretty irrelevant.

"We're Jambos after all. If we didn't have the faith, we wouldn't be there, we wouldn't be wearing the maroon.

"So, I've sent my daughter off to school this morning in her Hearts kit as an act of defiance."

[BBC]