\n<\/p>\n
Hearts head coach Derek McInnes has labelled Sunday’s meeting with Edinburgh rivals Hibernian as their toughest test.<\/p>\n
That might raise a few eyebrows, but you can see why. Hibs dismantled Hearts for 50 minutes at Easter Road in December, storming into a 3-0 lead.<\/p>\n
Hearts scored twice and were pressing for an equaliser by the end, but it was one of their most bruising experiences this season as they seek a first title since 1960.<\/p>\n
Hibs, who are chasing European football for the second straight season, have their own motivations as well as the derby bragging rights and the glee of derailing their rivals’ title tilt.<\/p>\n
Hearts’ away form is also a concern. They have picked up just one point from their last four away from Tynecastle – at bottom side Livingston – which is why Rangers and Celtic have edged closer.<\/p>\n
Given three of their final five games are on the road, that needs to improve.<\/p>\n
Plus, if the Old Firm win, Hearts will find themselves two points behind Rangers and level with Celtic at kick-off, which will present its own psychological challenge.<\/p>\n
When all that is considered, it is easy to see why McInnes thinks it could be his team’s biggest test.<\/p>\n
However, if they win it, the momentum boost could be huge.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n
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Hearts head coach Derek McInnes has labelled Sunday’s meeting with Edinburgh rivals Hibernian as their toughest test. That might raise a few eyebrows, but you can see why. Hibs dismantled Hearts for 50 minutes at Easter Road in December, storming into a 3-0 lead. Hearts scored twice and were pressing for an equaliser by the<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":13796,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-13795","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\/13795","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=13795"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/outdoorthrill.cfd\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13795\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/outdoorthrill.cfd\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/13796"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/outdoorthrill.cfd\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=13795"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/outdoorthrill.cfd\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=13795"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/outdoorthrill.cfd\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=13795"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}