Pressure on Old Firm in title race, says Martin

Former Rangers manager Russell Martin insists the weight of expectation still sits squarely on the shoulders of the Old Firm despite Hearts topping the Scottish Premiership table with only eight matches remaining.

Martin, dismissed after the seventh league fixture when Rangers languished in eighth place, watched successor Danny Rohl lift the club to third, three points adrift of Derek McInnes’ surprise leaders. Defending champions Celtic, guided by Martin O’Neill, trail Hearts by two points and sit one ahead of their Glasgow rivals.

“Because it’s so close, there’s pressure on the Old Firm always,” Martin told BBC Radio 5 Live’s Monday Night Club. “No matter what the situation, no matter what the game. I do think Hearts have less pressure than the other two right now. They can probably play on the underdog thing from now until the end of the season.”

Martin’s short tenure featured a scoreless draw at home to Celtic and a 2-0 defeat by Hearts, results that fed early scepticism around both traditional powers. Yet with the championship now effectively an eight-game sprint, he believes institutional history intensifies the strain on Celtic and Rangers.

“The Old Firm both have a chance of winning the league and the fans have been so frustrated and disappointed with their seasons,” he added. “Martin O’Neill and [assistant] Shaun Maloney have been there, won it between them so many times and [captain] Callum McGregor and the Celtic guys having had the experience of winning it, I think it could be really, really important.”

While acknowledging the Tynecastle side’s remarkable campaign, Martin stopped short of anointing them favourites. “Derek McInnes and Hearts have had an amazing season. It’s a really interesting and unique season. I really don’t know which way it’s going to go. Each week it sort of changes. No-one’s really in flow.”

Hearts’ credentials were tested at the weekend when they fell to Kilmarnock, yet their cushion over the chasing pair remains intact. The club last finished runners-up in 2006 and has not secured a top-two berth in the intervening 18 years.

Former Celtic striker Chris Sutton cautioned against assuming Hearts will buckle now the prize is in view. “Hearts are really difficult to measure because it’s so easy to just say the pressure’s off. I don’t necessarily think it is amongst the Hearts fan base,” he said on the same programme. “They’ve found a way to win. They’re not a beautiful football team. They are well structured. He knows what he’s doing, Derek McInnes does.”

Sutton also highlighted Celtic’s striking woes as a potential title decider. “If Celtic win the league this season, they’d have done it without a centre forward,” he noted. “Celtic have used five different centre-forwards. Numbers-wise they are massively down on what they were last season.”

With the trophy still mathematically available to three clubs and no side hitting peak form, Martin predicts a nerve-shredding run-in. “It’s an eight-game season and it’s going to be really, really exciting. You could easily see it going to either one of those teams.”