GIVEN Hearts have been the outstanding team in the SPFL Championship this season, it would be fitting were they to end up clinching the title at the home of the side many had predicted would finish as champions.

If a quick back-of-a-fag-packet calculation is accurate, should Hearts and Rangers both win all their matches between now and April 5, then Robbie Neilson's side would go to Ibrox for the re-arranged contest between the sides defending a 16-point advantage. With Rangers having six matches to be play after that date, victory for Hearts would give them an unassailable 19-point lead and hand them the championship. By around 2pm on Easter Sunday, Hearts could well have risen once again.

Of course, the chance of such a scenario coming to pass remains quite slim. So inconsistent have Rangers been of late that the idea of them winning their next seven matches without a stumble seems about as likely as Dave King and the Easdales getting together to roll their painted Easter eggs down a hill.

Hearts, then, would seem the better bet to keep up their end of the bargain. A club reinvigorated from top to bottom since emerging from administration, they have sailed through this season with barely a hitch. Even the one league defeat to their name so far - at home to Falkirk last month - was being held up as a blessing on disguise by Neilson on Saturday evening following another hard-fought victory over Queen of the South.

"I never like to get beat but it was good to finally to get the unbeaten run off our back," he said, turning a negative into a positive. "In every press conference the boys were being asked about when we were going to get beat. Every team were desperate to beat us but that is out the way. Now we don't get asked about it. I knew we would never go undefeated but I am glad in the way we have responded since the Falkirk game."

That response has been four victories on the bounce, three of them away from home. The football may not be as fluent as it had been earlier in the season - when they were scoring four and five every other weekend - but the will to win has never diminished. At Palmerston on Saturday, against a team looking to be involved in the end-of-season play-offs, Hearts had to come from a goal behind to eventually secure the victory with a fortunate, deflected effort seven minutes from time. Hearts have demonstrated many attributes over the course of the season but perhaps it is their consistency that has been their greatest strength. They will undoubtedly be an asset to the Premiership next season.

The finishing line is now in sight but there is no unseemly rush to get there. Hibernian's solid form and the threat of Rangers with their three games in hand is enough to keep Hearts focused but it would take a collapse of Devon Loch proportions for them not to clinch the championship, whether at Ibrox or somewhere else.

"There is still a long way to go," said Morgaro Gomis, the Hearts midfielder, somewhat diplomatically. "It's good that we can win games even if we are not playing like we were at the beginning of the season. People might be saying we're not winning 4-0 or 5-0 but a win is a win."

A glance at the Hearts substitute bench on Saturday gave an indication as to the depth of Neilson's squad. Genero Zeefuik started the match in attack - and was credited in most places with the winning goal, despite the sizeable deflection of the unfortunate Sean Higgins - but waiting to take his place were Osman Sow, James Keatings, and Soufian El Hassnaoui. It is the sort of selection headache almost every Premiership manager would love to have.

"Genero is a good player, a strong guy and he can finish as well in the box," added Gomis who was again impressive alongside Miguel Pallardo. "We have other strikers as well like Osman and Soufian as well so there's good competition. We know they can all score goals."

This was a setback in Queens' attempts to book their place in the play-offs. Combined with Falkirk's win against Livingston, they are clinging on to fourth place only on goal difference but Danny Carmichael, scorer of the opening goal that was cancelled out later in the half by Billy King, was not unperturbed.

"We know what we have to do," he said. "We just have to win our games that we know we should be winning. If we do that then hopefully we should be there in the top four. If we play like we did [on Saturday] in the games that we've got coming up we should be fine."