Hearts visit Celtic on Sunday for a top-of-the-table clash with their eight-point Scottish Premiership lead gone, after Bruce Anderson's 90th-minute leveller for struggling Kilmarnock left them without a win in four games.

Having won one of their previous five matches, Derek McInnes' Hearts were in need of a victory against the manager's former club to refuel chat of a serious Tynecastle title challenge.

Lawrence Shankland's 11th goal of the season, a lofted finish following a Tomas Magnusson pass, looked set to provide that.

But Anderson's late equaliser, a rebound after goalkeeper Alexander Schwolow fumbled Liam Polworth's strike from distance, extended Hearts' stuttering form.

McInnes' men still lead the table on goal difference, but Celtic are now level on points and have a game in hand with Sunday's match at Parkhead looming.

Kilmarnock's winless run stretches to eight games, but this point will serve as a huge boost for Stuart Kettlewell and his players.

Hearts were eight points clear of Celtic just over a month ago when they overwhelmed the reigning champions in a 3-1 win at Tynecastle.

Six games later, that gap has been closed completely, which evidences just how difficult it is for any non-Old Firm club to maintain a title push.

Some concerns were bubbling away about Hearts' creativity after they had failed to score in back-to-back games at Aberdeen and Motherwell.

And those worries will not go away after this one as they were simply unable to put Kilmarnock to bed despite having 65% possession and pumping 38 crosses into the visitors' box.

Shankland had a close-range header blocked and Magnusson nodded off a post before they survived a huge scare when Marcus Dackers headed his own effort against the Hearts crossbar.

The home side failed to heed the warning, though, as Schwolow's error allowed Anderson to spark bedlam in the away end.

It also earned a precious point for Kilmarnock, who ended the game with a higher expected goals rating than their opponents (2.23 to 1.74).

Hearts head coach Derek McInnes: "It 100% [feels like two points dropped]. You're never there until the referee blows the final whistle.

"It's a mistake, we're not going to kill people for that. We should be dealing with the shot. It's unfortunate for us for all the control we had. A lot of what I wanted from the game was there.

"We could have done with that second goal, but sometimes 1-0 should be enough. We should just stay calm."

Kilmarnock manager Stuart Kettlewell: "I thought we were pushing to win it. Firstly we felt we had to give ourselves a foundation in the game.

"We spoke about tying to grow in the game and that was in the gameplan. It's a brilliant finish from Shankland, but we roll the dice and put attackers on to get something out of the game.

"The players managed the game well from 1-0 down. We were looking for a big moment and Bruce [Anderson] came up trumps."

Hearts face a huge game on Sunday (15:00 GMT) as they travel to face second-placed Celtic, who have a game in hand and will be led by new manager Wilfried Nancy for the first time.

Kilmarnock are in action late on Saturday (20:00) as a challenging run continues with the visit of Rangers.