Robbie Neilson has challenged his Hearts team to take the Championship by the scruff of the neck in their final seven games of the campaign after watching his side inch closer to a Premiership return with a win over Ayr United.
Goals from Armand Gnanduillet and substitute Jamie Walker secured three points to put the Tynecastle side 15 points clear at the second tier's summit with less than a third of the campaign remaining.
Hearts have now won back to back games following a series of below-par performances in draws and could be confirmed as champions in around four weeks time - depending on what happens in the slew of games in hand held by sides below them.
But the Gorgie boss urged his side to go and take command of their own destiny by winning all of their final seven games to wave goodbye to the Championship in style, starting with the trip to Arbroath next weekend.
“It’s a big step today but as I said to the boys in there, we’ve got seven games to win and that’s it," he told Hearts TV after the final whistle.
“Seven games left and we’re expected to win every game, and that’s what we intend to do.
“We’ve got the Scottish Cup coming up and we want to get as far as we can in that. We want to try and win it. We’ve been to the final, twice recently, so it’s about winning games and finding ways to win games.
“Today was different from the Dundee game. The Dundee game was a lot more expansive, two teams going at it and trying to win the game.
“Today was a team that wanted to sit in and try and kill the game so you have to find a way to win it.”
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