Hearts fans can’t disguise the misery that they have ben through over the last six weeks.
The media darlings, the People’s Champions turned up at Celtic Park on May 16 expecting to be officially crowned as Champions.
A new generation of Jambos are forever mentally scarred.
For those that were around in 1986 it was Deja Vu with a difference. Due to social media they get reminded of the pain of failure every day in life.
Even Hibs fans are laughing at their city neighbours.
Worse that that their cousins came waving bags of money at Lawrence Shankland and Derek McInnes. Both men got out of Gorgie as quick as they could.
Still, Hearts remained as the People’s Champions and had the cherished Jamestown Analytics on their side.
But how much of last season’s so-called success was down to Jamestown and how much was due to bringing in a set-piece specialist?
THE ROSS GRANT IMPACT ON HEARTS
Ross Grant arrived in the specialist role from Dundee United last summer.
McInnes was never a geek, a disciple of analytics. Walter Smith and Paul Gascoigne would have laughed him out the room if he had discussed Xg with his Ibrox buddies.
Three matches into last season McInnes was singing the praises of Celtic’s new coach.
BBC Scotland reported the then Hearts boss saying:
We’ve obviously brought in Ross to aid us with that and it’s his job to look forensically at the opposition and where we can get gains.
It’s something we’ve always done as a staff, but we’ve got that added time and added focus on it from Ross. He’s done brilliant and long may it continue.
It’s about identifying areas where we can get as much joy as possible. Underneath it all, it’s about good deliveries, good timing and aggressive players wanting to get on the end of it.
I’m glad we’ve got Ross. He’s been huge value to us and it’s good that he’s getting recognition for his work because his work is good.
The negativity of McInnes cost Hearts dearly. Points were dropped away to Kilmarnock, Livingston and Motherwell as the season came to a focus. And of course at Celtic Park.
Jamestown obviously had an impact but under McInnes set-pieces were at least as important.
Reviewing the season, the Hearts Standard explained:
Despite its heartbreaking ending, the 2025/2026 Scottish Premiership season was historic for Heart of Midlothian. It featured monumental performances on the pitch and huge infrastructure changes off it.
Much of Hearts’ rise has been attributed to Derek McInnes’ coaching and the recruitment expertise of Jamestown Analytics, but there is one additional factor that may have gone under the radar for those not as closely connected to Tynecastle.
Ahead of last season, the club appointed Ross Grant as the club’s first-ever set-play coach following a four-year stint in the professional phase of the Tannadice academy. He also arrived with links to former Hearts manager and now-legendary set-piece coach Austin MacPhee.
Hearts saw an immediate return on investment, striking hot from corners early in the season. But just how much of a difference did Grant’s appointment make?
They then went into the deepest of dives. Every corner seemed to be assessed. Left sided right sided, in-swinging and out-swinging.
Then concluded with:
If you look back at Hearts’ set pieces before Grant and McInnes’ arrival, they felt panicked, rushed and without purpose. There was no clear direction on when to go short, when to attack the box or when to play a ball to the near post/far post or on to the keeper. This resulted in two years of some of the worst corners in the Scottish Premiership.
Now it is clear that Hearts have a plan every time they step up to take a corner, and it is not just about playing to their strengths; it is equally about exploiting their opponents’ weaknesses by overloading zones, blocking the goalkeeper, targeting specific defenders or switching the delivery up.
Bottom line is that Grant brought variety and results.Â
After Lawrence Shankland and Claudio Braga their top SPFL scorer was Stuart Findlay with five goals from 34 matches. Not an incredible amount but Liam Scales and Auston Trusty failed to score from a combined total of 58 SPFL starts. Everyone of Findlay’s goals came from corners.
A lot will be expected of Grant at Celtic, equally he has a massive opportunity in an area that the club has been weak in for years.
Martin O’Neill’s side has a relatively gentle start to the SPFL Premiership season. If Grant can improve set pieces by 20% it could have a real difference in results.
On the defensive side of corners conceded , I really hope he puts someone at the back post , as we were always taught . Has football changed so much that this tactic is obsolete?
And a few long throw in’s also .. every team in the SPL used this against our panicky defense … was it considered to low of a tactic for us to facilitate?
Shankland showed the danger of nobody on the posts on Super Saturday May Day !
During COVID I decided to undertake a football analysis diploma with the Barcelona analysis team. It was really interesting and focused on 4 main modules ..one of which was set pieces. It went into depth of all types … Free kicks both defensive and attacking .. corners (had to analyze a complete season of Elche .. to try and spot trends … Whether they played inswinger or outswinger depending on who took…if they aimed at any place in particular etc) .. Throw ins… Either defensive attacking or simply to retain possession and penalties .. statistically it is almost 4 in 5 that a player who kicks with one foot will aim for the opposite corner. Then we had to do the quantative (numbers percentages etc) and qualitative analysis of each type of set piece. So hopefully with a competent analyst involved we should improve both attacking and defending set pieces.