- Hearts have been the better of these two teams since May 2025
- Hearts have won four and drawn one of their last five Premiership Championship Round matches
- Motherwell have failed to win any of their last two home fixtures against Hearts
Jambos are the team in form
Hearts Of Midlothian FC are the form team heading into Saturday’s Premiership Championship Round 2026 clash with Motherwell and have been in particularly dominant form in this fixture since May 2025 when the Jambos appointed Derek McInnes as their boss.
The Edinburgh club have won two and drawn three of the five meetings since then with Motherwell unable to claim a victory in any of them. Hearts are also on a three-game winning streak that includes last weekend’s 2-1 home victory over Glasgow Rangers FC and a 2-1 win away at Hibernian FC.
McInnes has implemented a results-based approach since taking charge of Hearts and they play a compact three-at-the-back system that can both control games when in possession and play direct when they need to. They are also very clinical, as evidenced by Lawrence Shankland’s three goals in their last eight.
Motherwell to struggle if they cannot contain Shankland
The Well are in inconsistent form going into the match with a win, a draw and three defeats in their last five Premiership Championship Round games, the highlight of which was their stunning 3-2 away win over Glasgow Rangers FC nine days ago.
However, they stumbled three days later with a 1-0 defeat at Falkirk FC and have failed to beat Hearts in their last two attempts. Jens Berthel Askou has implemented a flexible, vertical system since taking over at Fir Park in July 2025 with his players matching up well against anyone with their high-tempo pressing and quick transitions.
Motherwell score an average of 1.71 goals per game at home in the Premiership Championship Round 2026 while only conceding 0.53 per game, so it’s unlikely that Hearts will run away with this contest. But with 10 wins, five draws and only two defeats from 17 home games, there’s enough evidence to suggest Motherwell will find a way to edge this.
Hearts will find the net on Saturday
Hearts are the slight favourites for this clash at 17/10 and Motherwell are 38/25 to win, which seems too high a price for a team sitting fourth in the table with 57 points from 35 games compared to Hearts’ 76.
Blair Spittal has been in lethal form for Hearts with one goal in his last two league matches, while Emmanuel Longelo has bagged two in his last two for Motherwell. Both teams to score is the overwhelming favourite at 63/100, which suggests both teams will get on the scoresheet in this Championship Round battle.
Both sides have their sights on a European place, which is very possible given the inconsistency of the teams around them, so the stakes are high and sparks will fly in this clash of contrasting philosophies.
