Hearts winger Jamie Walker spells out the way club should look to wrap up title

Jamie Walker has urged Hearts to avoid limping towards the finishing line after the leaders were held to a 1-1 draw by Morton on Saturday.

Hearts' Jamie Walker celebrates his equaliser against Greenock Morton at Tynecastle on Saturday. It was his 50th goal for the club (Photo by Ross MacDonald / SNS Group)

Robbie Neilson’s side have now dropped 10 points already this year as they make stumbling progress towards the title. They are still 11 points clear of second place Dunfermline, who have one game in hand. Despite being held to a draw, Hearts increased their lead over supposed title rivals Raith Rovers and Dundee.

Walker came off the bench to score his 50th goal for the club after Craig McGuffie put the visitors ahead shortly after half-time. But Hearts were unable to secure all three points despite having 26 shots on goal in total. They have only taken full points from four of their last eight league matches. Walker believes that he and his teammates need to have more pride in themselves as they seek to tighten their clutch on the title – beginning against Inverness Caledonian Thistle on Friday.

“Even if we ultimately wrap up the title, we still want to win football matches,” said Walker. “We are a big football club and should be winning most matches in this league. It is up to the boys to have a pride within themselves to take the game by the scruff of the neck and make things happen.”

Hearts face a challenging assignment at the Caledonian stadium. Although supporters have bought almost 10,000 virtual tickets, there will be no one inside the ground to cheer them on. Walker is as much a fan as anyone and stressed that dropping points at home to a Morton side without a win since last year is unacceptable.

“We are Heart of Midlothian and we shouldn’t be drawing against Morton at Tynecastle,” he said. “We played well in spells but it was a disappointing result and we need to do better.

“We had an opportunity to really pull away at the top of the league in the least couple of weeks and we haven’t taken that so we need to get back into training and make amends in the next game.”

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