Hart: No one can question mentality – Derek McInnes

“It goes without saying, no matter how this season goes, at Hearts, if you don’t have a good mentality, you won’t get 76 points in three games, because there is pressure at this club that you have to deal with.

“There’s an insistence and an expectation to win games, so the players have responded time and time again.”

McInnes pointed to five wins against the Old Firm this season as well as their three wins in four derbies with Hibernian and their unbeaten home record as evidence that “the mentality is never in question”.

He insists everyone inside the dressing room is “quite relaxed” despite the prospect of becoming the first club outside of Rangers or Celtic to win a first league title since 1960 and the champions since 1985.

However, he admitted: “Normally, holidays would be an opportunity to switch off, but with the greatest will in the world, it’s hard to do at the moment, especially because there aren’t many training days now.

“Now we’re going to play three games in a week that, as we’ve done, will decide how it plays out.”

Hearts can clinch the title as early as Wednesday, when they host Falkirk, but are assured of a final-day shootout at Celtic Park.

“We can’t get caught up in all the different meanings and what if we win one and they win that one,” said McInnes, whose side visit fourth-top Motherwell on Saturday night before Celtic host Rangers on Sunday.

“It’s not our thinking, I don’t have time for that,” McInnes said. “The message to the players is to focus on trying to win against Motherwell.

“They haven’t beaten us this season, but for most teams they’ve been in trouble. They could have beaten us in all three games, but we did our job well enough in all the games to pick up the points.”

McInnes was named PFA Scotland Manager of the Year on Sunday and said he considered it “an award for everyone”, pointing to the support he has received from sporting director Graeme Jones and coaches Paul Sheeran and Alan Archibald.