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Hearts lost the League on Wednesday night. But not because it gave Celtic the chance to overtake them yesterday. Because they are a small club, led by a small, bitter loser of a manager, neither of whom can handle pressure. Celtic were awarded a penalty which was the subject of manufactured controversy, and it ended Hearts’ premature title celebrations, players’ weans on the pitch, the lot, very abruptly. Because they did not believe they could go to Celtic Park and avoid defeat. At that stage, a good manager would have been rallying his players. Telling them the penalty only only delayed the inevitable. But Derek McInnes is not a good manager. Instead, he jumped on the controversy bandwagon and allowed his hatred of Celtic to overcome everything else. His, “disgusting,” comment, over a penalty awarded against another team in another stadium didn’t create a siege mentality. It created an excuse mentality. Derek McInnes is a serial bottler. He first became a manager in 2007 and won a Challenge Cup with St Johnstone before becoming Aberdeen manager after achieving nothing in spells in charge of Bristol City and Watford. He was at Pittodrie in the period after Rangers’ liquidation, an ideal time for provincial clubs to win trophies - he won the League Cup once in 2014, beating ICT on penalties, but lost the Scottish Cup Final to St Johnstone in 2014 (0-2), then lost four cup finals to Celtic between 2016 and 2018. He is not a winner. Hearts have signed some excellent players since last summer; but their biggest mistake was appointing Derek McInnes and I can’t believe Tony Bloom will consider it a successful appointment. McInnes plays football straight from Plough Lane in the late 1980s. His team is brutal to watch. They lump garryowens towards the corner flags and try to force throw-ins from them. They’ve got good players who can take advantage of the chaos they cause by their route 1 football, but they’ve all the finesse of a battering ram and against any decent side they’ll come unstuck. Hearts fans knew on Wednesday night their title challenge was done. Their players knew it, and McInnes knew it. Jock Stein always said the Lisbon Lions weren’t world beaters, he just let them think they were. That’s what a good manager does, and McInnes didn’t do that. His interview and his demeanour on Wednesday night told his entire club they were done. Instead of trying to lift them, instead of telling them they just had to go and win it on the biggest stage of all, he sank with them. McInnes has always been classless. He’s been classless all season, from starting a row with the Celtic bench after we scored at Tynecastle, digs about Celtic never having players sent off, to running out the stadium yesterday as soon as the match was over. Hearts enjoyed some enormous luck this season. Plenty of dodgy decisions have gone their way. Celtic had a mare and Rangers did what they always do. This was his chance and he blew it. They were miles ahead of Celtic by the end of the Nancy debacle, and it wasn’t a dodgy penalty decision for Celtic agaisnt Motherwell that cost them the title. It was Derek McInnes being a serial bottler when the pressure is on. Hearts blew it and it was only because Celtic had fallen so far behind they ever looked like they could win it. Hearts will win very little, if anything, under Derek McInnes.