HEART of Midlothian win the title at Easter Road.

It certainly does have a ring to it. The champagne has been on ice in Gorgie for some considerable time, such has been the capital club's remarkable dominance in the Championship this term. However, their coronation could finally be made official this afternoon with a little help from their friends across the city.

Hearts did their part yesterday, dispatching a Falkirk side which had been previously undefeated in 2015 with consummate ease thanks to goals from the magnificent Jamie Walker, Genero Zeefuik and James Keatings.

The gap to second-place Hibernian is now 23 points and, should Alan Stubbs' side fail to defeat Rangers in Leith this afternoon, maroon ribbons will be adorning the Championship trophy by the end of the day.

Hearts do not usually require any special reason to hope Hibs falter, such is the nature of any fierce rivalry. Nevertheless, they have a compelling one today. Head coach Robbie Neilson will not be in attendance at Easter Road as he attends his UEFA Pro Licence course at Stirling this afternoon, with assistant head coach Stevie Crawford the man who will be charged with delivering dispatches from Easter Road.

However, Neilson did express his surprise at the chasm between his side and those teams which were expected to provide stern competition for automatic promotion to the Premiership.

Although it seems ludicrous, given they could today clinch the title with six weeks to spare, he would even have accepted simply taking the race for the crown to the final day.

"To be honest, I looked at the fixtures at the start of the season and saw that we had Rangers on the first game of the season and the last game of the season" he recalled. "I would have taken the idea of going into the last game of the season against them needing a result - I would have taken a Championship decider at Tynecastle.

"Thankfully we don't need to do that . . . Hopefully! We can now go into that game without it being an enormous game.

"However, when you play for a club of Hearts' stature you need to win every week, regardless of the circumstances. "Playing in the Championship, we should be winning games. Even if we are crowned champions on Sunday, we can't start slacking." Osman Sow and Zeefuik, who boasted a combined 11 goals in their nine matches prior to kick-off, almost carved out the opening goal after 10 minutes. A woefully slack pass from John Baird in midfield allowed Sow to slip his strike-partner clean-through on goal. However, Zeefuik fired a poor effort straight at the onrushing Jamie MacDonald.

Falkirk thought they had broken the deadlock minutes later when Taylor Morgan latched onto a Will Vaulks pass inside the box and rattled a super near-post finish past Neil Alexander. However, his celebrations were cut short by a tight offside call. And things got worse for the hosts just prior to the half-hour mark as Hearts claimed the lead. Unsurprisingly it was the irrepressible Walker who broke the deadlock.

Sow surged down the left-flank and forced his way inside the box before providing a pin-point cut-back for the in-form winger, who made no mistake in drilling a low shot through MacDonald from 10 yards - his eighth goal in 11 matches. Only a wonderful one-handed save from MacDonald kept the Bairns in the game at the interval, with the 2012 Scottish Cup-winning hero palming clear a goal-bound drive from Sow.

However, he could do nothing to stop Zeefuik doubling the capital club's advantage just two minutes into the second half, with the burly Dutchman lashing home from close-range after a Walker cross was only partially cleared by the Bairns defence.

And Keatings secured the points in style with his first touch after coming off the beech to replace Zeefuik, racing onto a Callum Paterson pass and curling a super finish past MacDonald.

Falkirk have now slipped four points behind Queen of the South in an intriguing race for the playoffs.

However, MacDonald is heartened by the lessons of history, recalling how their last home defeat against Hearts proved to be a perverse catalyst for a mighty impressive sequence of results.

The Bairns were defeated 2-1 at home by the Jambos in November and proceeded to embark on a run of just one defeat in 17 matches - catapulting them into promotion contention and a Scottish Cup semi-final.

"The last time we got beat by Hearts at home it started our great run," the former Hearts keeper said. "Hopefully we can do that again. Maybe it will kick us on and really push us towards the end of the season. "We have six games before the Scottish Cup semi-final and if we can pick up 18 points, which will be our aim, then we have a great chance of getting in the playoffs. "That was our first defeat of the calendar year and it is important we don't get too down about it. We have a lot of games coming up which will determined the course of our season - not games like Hearts."

Falkirk (4-4-1-1): MacDonald; Duffie, McCracken, Grant, Leahy; Taiwo (Biabi 52), Vaulks (Alston 77), Kerr, Sibbald; Morgan (Smith 52); Baird. Subs not used: Bowman, Dick, Maybury, Cooper, Biabi.

Hearts (4-4-2) : Alexander; Paterson, Wilson, Ozturk, Eckersley; King, Gomis, Pallardo, Walker (Anderson 85); Zeefuik (Keatings 80), Sow (Nicholson 75). Subs not used: Hamilton, McHattie, El Hassnaoui, McKay. Referee: Crawford Allan

Attendance: 7735

Man of the Match: Jamie Walker: A fine goal and an assist in another dazzling display.