Livingston defender Danny Wilson has backed his former club Hearts to win the Premiership title.
The centre-back has been surprised by his side's poor return to the top flight and suggested their late 2-1 defeat to Hearts at the start of the season set the tone for their campaign.
Hearts are two points in front of Rangers at the top while Livi sit rock bottom, 12 points behind Kilmarnock and St Mirren, with seven games to play.
"Given the consistency they've shown, I don't see why they can't go on to win the league," Wilson said of Hearts.
"They've been the most consistent team and they find themselves deservedly at the top of the league.
"They have all the ingredients to be a successful team. They are very solid and they have players that can win them games. I've been really impressed with them."
The sides meet in West Lothian on Sunday, a fixture Livi haven't won since 2022. Marvin Bartley's men are without a victory in any competition since the start of August.
And Wilson suggested Hearts' 2-1 win at Almondvale at the start of the season, where Livi conceded an injury-time goal to lose, set the tone for an underwhelming campaign.
"They've won a lot of games by the odd goal," the 34-year-old added.
"When we played them here earlier in the season I thought that sort of set the tone for our season.
"We were very unlucky not to have taken one or three points but we took none.
"We know how tough it will be, but hopefully we can make it three points this weekend to give ourselves a better feeling."
The captain said Livi's poor run is "something I didn't expect coming into this season" and added: "We need to start putting points on the board.
"We're really at that stage now where if we don't, then it's looking like the inevitable is going to happen."
