Paul Hartley believes 'fascinating' Premiership title race 'will come down to last day'

Paul Hartley believes this season’s ‘fascinating’ Premiership title race will go down to the wire and insists it could come down to whoever does the best business this month.

Hearts currently lead the way, with Celtic and Rangers both six points ahead, now that every team has played each other twice.

Hartley is looking forward to an exciting run-in and is expecting last-day drama to decide who will get their hands on the trophy in May.

The former Scotland midfielder won a dramatic league title with Celtic, and helped Hearts to the Scottish Cup during an earlier spell at Tynecastle, so he knows what it takes to be successful at both clubs.

And he says Celtic will need reinforcements this month to have the best chance of retaining their title for a fifth season in a row.

Speaking to STV Sport, promoting The Warm-Up, the William Hill SPFL’s weekly preview show, Hartley said: “(The title race) is fascinating, it’s exciting, and it’s about time we had a title race in Scotland, it’s always been kind of limited to one-way traffic, I’m looking forward to it.

“It’s all to play for, and I think it will come right down to the last day of the season to be honest with you.

“Derek (McInnes) has done a brilliant job, he’s got them organised, and they have signed some really good players, their recruitment has been spot on.

“You can see the spirit is there, the atmosphere at Tynecastle, the anticipation, and I think they believe they can win the league.

“This is a big window, I think it’s a big window for Celtic in terms of recruitment, they know they are short, everybody has been going on about the lack of strikers, and it will be important for Martin to get three or four players in and see how they come out at the end of the window.

“Hearts have a few injury issues. Will Derek go back into the market to bring some more in? They’ve acted early and so have Rangers, to bring new faces in, so Celtic are the ones that are a wee bit weak in their squad just now.

“Hearts are in the driving seat, it’s about who comes out of this transfer window the strongest now, and then it will be down to whoever is the most consistent.

“Celtic will need to get some players in; they’ve not been playing well, and they have been looking for a main attacker since Kyogo left over a year ago.

“We have a great run in ahead of us, and I am really looking forward to it between now and the end of the season.”