Hearts dare to dream of Scottish title after beating CelticEdinburgh, United Kingdom26/10/2025 – 16:13 (UTC + 1)Hearts took another giant leap towards ending the 40-year dominance of Scottish football by the Old Firm with a 3-1 win over Celtic to open up an eight-point lead at the top of the table.
A Dane Murray own goal, Alexandros Kyziridis’ stunning strike and Lawrence Shankland’s penalty ensured the Scottish champions lost back-to-back league games for the first time in nearly two years.
Rangers are even further adrift as Hearts moved 16 points clear of the Ibrox side, who host Kilmarnock later on Sunday.
Not since Alex Ferguson led Aberdeen to the title in 1985 have Celtic or Rangers failed to win the Scottish top flight.
“We’ve got a good thing going at the minute,” said Hearts manager Derek McInnes.“But it is still so early, we are only nine games in. We’ve still got to improve.”
Hearts have been transformed since a minority investment in the club by Brighton owner Tony Bloom, who was in attendance in Edinburgh.
The expertise of Bloom’s Jamestown Analytics firm has already reaped reward as summer signings Claudio Braga and Kyziridis again shone.
Hearts’ title hopes have also been aided by a miserable time for both Glasgow giants.Celtic’s disastrous summer transfer window that has caused fan fury over a lack of investment is now being further exposed by an injury crisis.
Alistair Johnston, Cameron Carter-Vickers and Kelechi Iheanacho face lengthy spells on the sidelines after suffering serious injuries in Thursday’s 2-1 Europa League win over Sturm Graz.Carter-Vickers’ replacement Murray suffered a torrid afternoon at Tynecastle.
The young centre-back sliced a Shankland cross horribly into his own goal to put Hearts in front on eight minutes.
Celtic responded immediately as Kieran Tierney teed up Callum McGregor to level.
But the visitors faded badly in the second period after their midweek European exertions as Hearts filled the home crowd with belief that the Old Firm stranglehold can be broken.
“We need to find a way to be more consistent. It’s still so early, it’s only nine games,” said Celtic boss Brendan Rodgers.
“The comfort is there’s so many games to play. We know we can find a consistent set of games, there’s still so many points to play for.”
Kyziridis arrowed in a fine strike from outside the box seven minutes into the second half for his fifth goal since a move from Slovakian side Zemplin Michalovce.
Braga then tempted Murray into a naive challenge to give away a penalty, which Shankland confidently dispatched beyond Kasper Schmeichel.
Only a fine Schmeichel save to deny Eduardo Ageu kept the score from becoming embarrassing for Celtic.
The Hoops have amassed 13 titles in the last 14 years during a miserable era for Rangers since their demotion to the fourth tier of Scottish football after going bust in 2012.
Now they finally face a new challenge as Hearts look to shake up Scottish football’s stale duopoly.
