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👋 Good morning! It’s Saturday 16 May 2026. I’m Neil McIntosh, editor of The Early Line, and it’s great to have you here.
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Have a wonderful weekend, all!
☀️ The weekend’s weather: Rain, alas, on title parades whether they happen in Glasgow or Edinburgh tomorrow, with this afternoon expected to be damp too. Today will be better for Aberdeen and Inverness, but they’ll see showers tomorrow. London has showers today, but is dry tomorrow. (Here’s the UK forecast).
SIX THINGS TO TALK ABOUT
Scottish football prepares for the most dramatic of finales
🍸 It’s a title race that’s transcended football fandom: even those weary of the sport will be aware fan-owned Hearts could, just maybe, break a 40-year Old Firm duopoly and win the Scottish Premiership today.
But they have to travel to Celtic Park at lunchtime and do it the hard way - by securing some kind of result with only 800 of their fans among 60,000 in the great green bowl.
In the most eagerly anticipated title deciders in recent history, a draw or a win will reward them for a season’s endeavour in which they’ve led the table for much of the season.
If they pull it off, it’ll be the club’s first top-flight title since 1960, and a moment of exorcism for the notorious season of 1985-86, when they came within a game of the title… and lost 2-0 away to Dundee, handing Celtic the championship on goal difference.
Only Celtic and Rangers have won the title since, while the scars of that day live on for a generation of Hearts fans.
Should Celtic win, it’ll be a remarkable turnaround under Martin O’Neill, who has returned to the club twice this season to steady the ship after the managerial reign of Brendan Rodgers imploded, and the inexplicable appointment of Wilfried Nancy ended in sporting disaster.
Celtic fans have been warned to behave if they win - the Trongate in Glasgow has been boarded up, just in case - while there are elaborate plans for a party in Edinburgh tomorrow, down Gorgie Road and into Princes Street - should Hearts succeed. (BBC)
90 minutes from glory as do-or-die match set to decide title (Daily Record)
Alan Pattullo: Scottish football braces itself for an almighty climax (Scotsman)
Can Hearts finally end Celtic and Rangers 41 years of Old Firm dominance in the Scottish Premiership? (CBS Sports)
“It’ll be mayhem if we win” (Guardian)
⚽️ Celtic v Hearts (12.30pm, Sky Sports Main Event)
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PLUS: find top TV, film and sporting picks for the weekend.
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