Hearts suffer title wobble as Celtic turn up the heat and Rangers look to capitalise

The Jambos’ advantage at the top of the table is down to two points after they lost 1-0 at Rugby Park on Saturday night, a few hours after second-placed Celtic defeated Motherwell. Rangers can also move to within three points of Hearts and will look to capitalise when they travel to St Mirren on Sunday.

Michael Schjonning-Larsen’s first-half goal proved decisive for Killie, who held firm thereafter to move nine points clear of bottom side Livingston and level with 10th-placed St Mirren.

“Kilmarnock started the game far better than us,” said McInnes, who revealed midfielder Tomas Magnusson had gone off with a suspected fractured cheekbone. “I thought they were sharper to the ball, they were more aggressive than us.

“There was so much wrong about the goal in terms of the lead-up to it, not enough pressure on the ball and having a Kilmarnock player standing free in our box when we’ve got enough bodies back there. It’s just a poor goal to lose.

“You’ve got to compliment Kilmarnock, they scrapped and fought for everything to get their win. Our efforts tonight weren’t enough. We didn’t show enough quality. I thought one or two looked a bit leggy.

“There were certainly one or two who were really off it. And players who have done so well and represented our club brilliantly this season. So I’m not going to start being too harsh on them and starting to get a bit too aggressive with all that side of it.

“But I think we’ve got to remind ourselves about what needs to get done when you come away from home in the Scottish Premiership. You’ve got to compete better than we did in the early part of the game. We need to get our three points next week now (against Dundee) and move on from it.

“But I think when you wake up tomorrow morning, every manager in the league, every supporter in the league would want to wake up and be top of the league. And we’re going to be doing that going into next Saturday’s game. And hopefully the response is what it normally is by winning the game next Saturday.”

Killie manager Neil McCann was delighted at the way his team bounced back from losing 5-1 to Falkirk in their previous match.

“I’m very proud of that performance,” said McCann. “As a coaching team we’ve worked really hard in the time since the Falkirk defeat to put a lot of information into the team.

“We got a sensational goal and we might have had one or two more, but I’m just proud of the reaction because I believed the Falkirk game was a blip and I think beating the league leaders is evidence that my belief is right.”

The hosts made four changes to the side that suffered a 5-1 defeat at Falkirk a fortnight previously, with Jamie Brandon, George Stanger, Aaron Tshibola and Liam Polworth all added.

Hearts – with the same XI that started their 1-0 victory over Aberdeen – fashioned an opportunity in the opening minute but Claudio Braga’s glancing header from a Blair Spittal cross was clutched by Kelle Roos.

The league leaders had a major let-off in the fifth minute when Findlay Curtis’ ferocious shot from the edge of the box deflected on to Alexander Schwolow’s left-hand post.

Killie were the more dangerous side in the early stages and they spurned a great chance in the 11th minute when Curtis’ cross from the left set up David Watson at the back post but the midfielder got his shot all wrong and Harry Milne was able to clear from just in front of the line.

The warning signs had been there for Hearts and they fell behind in the 17th minute as Greg Kiltie stepped away from Milne on the right and fizzed over a tantalising delivery to the back post, where Schjonning-Larsen nipped in unchecked to notch his first goal for Killie from just inside the six-yard box.

Killie’s tails were up and Joe Hugill saw an effort charged down by Jamie McCart in the box as they chased a second.

Hearts started to bring more intensity to their play as the first half wore on and they went close in the 22nd minute when Spittal released Braga on the left and the Portuguese forward saw a powerful low shot beaten away by Kelle Roos.

Magnusson then stole the ball off Tshibola just inside the Killie half and drove towards the edge of the box before firing a low shot just wide of Roos’ right-hand post.

It proved to be Magnusson’s last notable involvement as he was forced off shortly afterwards to be replaced by Oisin McEntee after sustaining a head knock.

Killie remained a threat and Hugill saw a shot from edge of the box beaten away by Schwolow.

Hearts sent on Islam Chesnokov in place of Landry Kabore for the start of the second half and the Kazakhstan winger helped force a mistake in the Killie defence that led to Spittal seeing a shot from 20 yards saved by Roos.

The visitors continued to have most of the pressure but struggled to carve out any clear-cut chances as they went down to a fifth league defeat of the campaign.