This stat will encourage Hearts fans with club facing relegation

Hearts are facing the prospect of playing outside of Scottish football’s top-flight for only the sixth season in their 146-year history.

But the good news for Hearts fans looking for any positives following the announcement that there will be no league reconstruction is that they have bounced back at the first attempt in all but one of their previous demotions.

With the coronavirus expected to curtail the campaign, Hearts are facing relegation as the team currently propping up the table.

The last time they suffered that fate was in 2014 when the side under then boss Gary Locke could not recover from a 15-point penalty imposed for plunging into administration.

Robbie Neilson then led Hearts to the title ahead of Rangers and Hibs with a record points tally the following season.

Hearts were a yo-yo team over 40 years ago when they suffered three relegations in 1977, 1979 and 1981.

In the last of those set-backs they needed two attempts to return to the top-flight, then boss Alex MacDonald steering the side to a second place finish in the old first division in 1983 behind title winners St Johnstone.