Rangers' trip to Hearts is the Tynecastle club's most significant league match in four decades, says Ryan McGowan, but the former Jambo says the games will only get bigger if they see off their title rivals on Monday.
The Ibrox side travel to Gorgie knowing that defeat would almost certainly rule them out of contention for the Scottish Premiership crown.
Derek McInnes' side are currently level on points with Celtic at the summit but sit four points clear of Rangers with four fixtures remaining.
McGowan believes this might well be the biggest league occasion for his former side since the 1985-86 campaign, when Hearts were denied the Scottish top-flight title on goal difference by Celtic on the final day.
However, the Livingston centre-back also acknowledges that the magnitude of his old club's matches will only intensify after Monday.
"Is it the biggest league game that a Hearts supporter has had since, you know, that season no Hearts fan talks about? It probably is," McGowan said on the BBC’s Scottish Football Podcast.
"But the situation Hearts are in just now, the next game is the biggest one. So, if they go and get a result on Monday, the following game is going to be bigger than the Rangers game. If they go and do that, the following game.
"So every game is just going to get compounded and compounded as they get possibly closer to winning the league."
