Rangers blink but twists still to come in colossal title race

In the season to beat all seasons there's a recurring question out there, even among day trippers to Scottish football - who's going to win this colossal battle for the Premiership title?

The answer one week is Hearts, the next Celtic, the next Rangers. It flits from one to the other. The momentum has moved about endlessly, not even from game to game but sometimes from half to half.

These are matches of nerve now. Bottle as much as skill. Rangers stumbled on Sunday on the back of laziness in critical times against a smooth and sophisticated Motherwell.

Four points behind Hearts and three behind Celtic, are Danny Rohl's team out of it? No. With only four games to go it's still too soon to make that call. If they lose against Hearts at Tynecastle next Monday night then you can stick a fork in them. If they win…

This month alone Celtic dug out a win in the 82nd minute at Dundee, Rangers came from 2-0 down at Falkirk to win 6-3 and Hearts were drawing with Motherwell with three minutes of normal time left to play - and won 3-1.

They were level with nine-man Hibs with four minutes to go at Easter Road on Sunday. It was a towering spectacle in the sun. Hibs - hanging on brilliantly against the odds, heading everything clear, throwing bodies in the way of shots, blowing a gasket to protect their point in front of an electrified home and away crowd.

Hearts were focused, relentless and eventually victorious; flawed but lacking nothing in guts and will to win. The post-match stats were monstrously skewed by their two-man advantage but Hearts had 23 shots on goal (their highest all season) to Hibs' four, they had 57 touches in Hibs' penalty area with Hibs having just three in Hearts' penalty area.

The visitors had 75.7% possession, 413 accurate passes to Hibs' 76, 47 crosses to Hibs' two and 11 corners to Hibs' zero. And yet it was only settled in the last minutes. Sporting theatre. Body and soul football. It was terrific.

Late, late shows gain (and drop) crucial points

There's been a sense that all of this is going to the wire, the last Saturday, maybe the last minutes of the last Saturday. Will all three be left standing before kick-off that day or will one have fallen away?

Rangers are in the most danger of taking themselves out of it. They can't stop scoring but equally, they can't stop conceding. There's a lot of flakiness in their make-up, possibly too many players spending too much time meandering through games.

Motherwell's slickness exposed Rangers, but who's to say that they won't expose Hearts and Celtic, too? Both have to go to Fir Park.

This season more than any other, one learns not to make predictions - or make them and be prepared to look daft. A helicopter Saturday is far from an outlandish thought and the more the cut and thrust continues the more goal difference becomes part of the conversation. Hearts' column sits at 31, Celtic's at 26 and Rangers' at 34.