Football

Scottish Premiership title race: The views of Derek McInnes, Danny Röhl and Martin O'Neill ahead of another big weekend for Hearts, Rangers and Celtic

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By Admin
Sports Journalist
Scottish Premiership title race: The views of Derek McInnes, Danny Röhl and Martin O'Neill ahead of another big weekend for Hearts, Rangers and Celtic

The only thing guaranteed in this season's Scottish Premiership title race is there will be plenty more twists and turns.

Eight months in and only once have Hearts, Rangers and Celtic all won on the same weekend.

Heading into the latest instalment of this captivating title race, the Jambos are three points ahead of Danny Röhl's side with Celtic a further two back.

Here is what the managers have had to say ahead of another huge weekend...

Hearts have topped the Scottish Premiership every day since September 27 and potentially being knocked off the summit by Rangers playing first is not a concern to Derek McInnes, whose side travel to Livingston on Sunday.

"We all need to play the same amount of games anyway. So whether you play first or whether you play last, it's neither here nor there for us. We just need to concentrate on the game," he told Your Site News.

"I think from the aesthetics and looking at it, sometimes people look at that a wee bit more. But in terms of us, we just see these two games coming up, Livingston and Motherwell at home, as an opportunity before we get into the split.

"Everything will get sorted out in the split anyway, but we just want to go into the split in as strong a position as possible, both in terms of performance and in terms of points.

"Hopefully we can do that and get the first three on Sunday, but we know we're going to have to work hard for them.

"I'm just delighted to be part of it. We have been top of the league for such a long time now, but it's being top of the league in May, which is important.

"To do that, we're going to have to continue to keep doing our jobs well. The players have done exceptionally well up until now and we just need to try and continue that."

Danny Röhl believes his Rangers side have the quality to win the title this season as they look to go top for the first time in over two years when they host Dundee United on Saturday.

"I'm happy, I feel really good because I see my group at the moment. I also see the development," he said.

"I think we are mentally strong. We took the win away against St Mirren, the pressure was on after two draws [against Livingston and Celtic], but we came back and we made a very good performance.

"A nice performance against Aberdeen, we used the chance and it gives me a lot of belief.

"There is no doubt my group is strong, convinced, and we have the quality to win the league.

"Yeah, in general we are looking forward to this game. We want to take the next 'cup' win. We said this many times.

"I expect after the international break that it is normal that always in the first game we need a little bit of time, and it's also the reason why I will trust some players that were here because they trained the last two weeks together.

"It is a good feeling but the best feeling should be after the game, and we win the game and we are top.

"We have to work hard. I think we played them twice this season and we couldn't win against them and this is a new challenge. They did well against Celtic [a 2-0 win], we are prepared for this.

"We know what we face and it will be a challenge. They have a small chance to make the top six and both teams want to win and we need a good performance."

Celtic are 17 points worse off than they were at this stage last season, but Martin O'Neill is not ruling out hopes of retaining the title as they prepare for their trip to Dundee on Sunday.

"It's a massive challenge, but it's a challenge worth taking on," he said.

"We lost ground a fortnight ago, but there will be twists and turns.

"We've been trying to play catch-up since the second time I came in and I think it will remain like that for some considerable time.

"All I do know is it's a very, very important game for us on Sunday. I think if we dropped points there with the games running out, that would be a difficult comeback.

"I've got faith in the team and the great thing is the team have belief in themselves.

"Although we've been chasing, our results have been pretty good. We lost the game at home to Hibs and we lost there [at Dundee United], but we have been doing remarkably well to try and stay in this race."

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