Craig Levein sees big Hearts question they've answered as he refuses to envisage Jambos dream he'd love
The former Hearts boss was on punditry duty for the game between his ex side and Celtic.
Craig Levein reckons Hearts have answered a big question in the title race - but the former boss and player isn’t indulging thoughts of glory just yet.
The Jambos drew 2-2 with Celtic on Sunday as they twice came from behind against the current Premiership champions to claim a point, staying top of the league and keeping the Hoops six points adrift. Rangers moved within four points of Hearts but fate is very much still in the hands of head coach Derek McInnes and his squad.
Levein was on punditry duties for Sky Sports on Sunday and was asked about his former club’s title credentials. While not getting into visioning something he’d love to see, he feels Hearts coping against Celtic without Lawrence Shankland, Cammy Devlin and Beni Baningime shows they have the mettle to cope with increasing pressure.
Craig Levein on Hearts title chances
Levein said: “I think Sunday’s performance by Hearts was a little bit different than some of the other ones recently. It was a bit of scrap for for long spells but they've shown that they can do that. When it comes down to it, they've shown that they can go out and go toe-to-toe with anybody out there. If it's a fight, so be it.
“They've got the centre-backs are dominant, the back line's really solid, safe, the goalkeeper, no matter who they pick, we spoke earlier on about Craig Gordon. Alexander Schwolow has been doing brilliantly up until this point. So there's a lot of things going right.
“The thing that's that was real interesting for me because of the two holding midfield players and Lauren Shankland being injured. Would Hearts have enough to get something out of the game? They've answered that question coming from behind twice. They can talk about that in the dressing room, so that when they're in a position when they're going and they're 1-0 down somewhere, it doesn't faze them.
Will Hearts win the Premiership title?
“So I think there's a lot of things happening in the dressing room at Tynecastle just now that are going to push this team forward and I'm very confident that they'll be there, thereabouts, at the end of the season. I don't even want to (envisage Hearts with league trophy)! I would love to see that. I would do. It's been a long time. A long, long time.
“You can hear from the players there. They're actually disappointed, genuinely disappointed, that they didn't get any more than a point on Sunday. I think it's a decent point. You know, there's a lot of things they can talk about at the start of the week when they go back and look at the game.
“The main thing to talk about is the fact that twice they've come from behind against Celtic to get the point. It's different if you're 2-0 up and you lose goals later on, it's 2-2, you're extremely disappointed with that. But I think they can be quite proud of what they're doing and what they've done up to this point.”