Ian Murray, the former Scottish secretary and a lifelong Hearts supporter, has described Celtic's last-second penalty against Motherwell on Wednesday night as "gut-wrenching" but remains confident that his team can clinch the Scottish Premiership title.
League leaders Hearts kept their title dreams alive with a 3-0 victory over Falkirk at Tynecastle on Wednesday. However, rivals Celtic were awarded a contentious spot-kick deep into stoppage time at Fir Park, which Kelechi Iheanacho converted to secure a 3-2 win for his side. The result means Hearts will be crowned Scottish champions for the first time in 66 years only if they avoid defeat at Celtic Park on Saturday.
Speaking on BBC's Mornings programme on Thursday, Murray criticised the "inconsistency" in penalty decisions, noting that Hearts had been denied "two clearer penalties" at the weekend. "I don't think that it was a penalty," he said. "People should throw a ball at each other today and see if they can get a ball to go back out for a throw-in just by hitting it with a hand. It just would not do that. And I think it's just the inconsistency of it."
He added: "It's gut-wrenching. It's devastating, and everyone seems to be against us. And if we're going to win this title, we're going to do it the hard way."
Despite the setback, the Edinburgh South MP insisted his team can still win the title, needing just one more point from their next match. "We've just got to keep believing we can get it, and if we do it on Saturday, all of this will become pretty irrelevant," he said. "We're Jambos after all. You know, if we didn't have the faith, we wouldn't be there, we wouldn't be wearing the maroon. So, I've sent my daughter off to school this morning in her Hearts kit as an act of defiance."
Murray also reflected on what has been a "remarkable" season in Scottish football. "Interest from across the world is through the roof, Sky having to purchase more games to show them," he said. "Who would have thought on a Wednesday night at eight o'clock the Sky game would be Hearts versus Falkirk at Tynecastle? Stadiums are bursting. People are really enjoying the football again. It's exciting. There are twists and turns everywhere but I think the fairytale ending of this is for somebody in maroon, Lawrence Shankland, to lift that SPFL trophy."
