{"id":12467,"date":"2026-04-08T16:46:00","date_gmt":"2026-04-08T15:46:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/outdoorthrill.cfd\/?p=12467"},"modified":"2026-04-08T16:46:00","modified_gmt":"2026-04-08T15:46:00","slug":"hearts-derek-mcinnes-happy-to-play-title-climax-in-car-park","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/outdoorthrill.cfd\/?p=12467","title":{"rendered":"Hearts: Derek McInnes happy to play title climax &#8216;in car park&#8217;"},"content":{"rendered":"<p> <br \/>\n<\/p>\n<div>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">&#8220;I actually don&#8217;t really care from our point of view where we play and the times and all the rest of it.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">McInnes said the fixtures came as &#8220;no real surprise&#8221; as Hearts had been pre-warned.<\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">&#8220;We&#8217;re just delighted to be part of the whole conversation, delighted that we&#8217;re going to be in amongst it and looking forward to the games when they come up,&#8221; he said.<\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">&#8220;It&#8217;s not great for the fans that they don&#8217;t get Saturday three o&#8217;clock, but I think, you know, having three away games it was probably difficult to fit everything in.<\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">&#8220;I get how not everybody&#8217;s going to be happy. I think the league have got a tough job to try and keep every club happy and every set of supporters happy, but for us we&#8217;re just obviously excited about the games that&#8217;s coming up. <\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">&#8220;I think you look at them, a lot of mouth-watering fixtures, we&#8217;ve said that the top six would sort everything out and these fixtures will. They&#8217;re brilliant fixtures.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">The SPFL explained that Hearts are away on the final day because it was unable to have both Glasgow or Edinburgh sides play at home on the final two fixture dates, as they all kick-off at the same time, and not to have a city derby on the final day.<\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">Only around 600 visiting fans are likely to be at Celtic Park for what could be a pivotal day in Hearts&#8217; history as they aim to clinch their first top-flight title since 1960.<\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">&#8220;That&#8217;s disappointing, that is, and I can understand the frustration from that,&#8221; McInnes said.<\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">&#8220;Let&#8217;s hope that we are getting into that game with plenty to play for and we&#8217;ve got a lot of work to do before then, but I totally get that.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">However, McInnes realised that the SPFL was keen to have &#8220;a fixture at the death that would be pretty key&#8221; and said: &#8220;I think it&#8217;s an unbelievable fixture if we are and particularly if Celtic have still got a chance as well.<\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">&#8220;If both teams are still in the mix for winning a league, it&#8217;s the most dramatic fixture you can have.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">McInnes fully expects the title race to go down to the final day, when Rangers also visit Falkirk.<\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">&#8220;They&#8217;ve got a difficult away game last game of the season as well, so I think it&#8217;s up to the league and the TV companies to try and maximise the drama,&#8221; he added.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<p><br \/><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>&#8220;I actually don&#8217;t really care from our point of view where we play and the times and all the rest of it.&#8221; McInnes said the fixtures came as &#8220;no real surprise&#8221; as Hearts had been pre-warned. &#8220;We&#8217;re just delighted to be part of the whole conversation, delighted that we&#8217;re going to be in amongst it<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":12468,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-12467","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-football"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/outdoorthrill.cfd\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12467","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/outdoorthrill.cfd\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/outdoorthrill.cfd\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/outdoorthrill.cfd\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/outdoorthrill.cfd\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=12467"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/outdoorthrill.cfd\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12467\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/outdoorthrill.cfd\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/12468"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/outdoorthrill.cfd\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=12467"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/outdoorthrill.cfd\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=12467"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/outdoorthrill.cfd\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=12467"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}