Celtic manager slams bottlethrowing incidents

EDINBURGH:

Newly-appointed Celtic manager Neil Lennon slammed the “totally unacceptable” bottle-throwing incidents that marred his return to Easter Road as the Hoops knocked his old club Hibernian out of the Scottish Cup with a 2-0 quarter-final win.

In the second-half at the Edinburgh ground on Saturday, with the game still scoreless and Celtic winger Scott Sinclair set to take a corner, referee Willie Collum was seen removing a bottle that had been thrown onto the pitch.

A flare was also thrown onto the field after James Forrest put Celtic ahead in the 62nd minute.

Both players were unharmed, with a post-match statement from Hibernian insisting that “two bottles were thrown, one from each set of supporters”.

Saturday’s match was the latest example of objects being thrown from the crowd, with coins hurled at former Rangers striker Kris Boyd during Kilmarnock’s 1-0 defeat by Celtic last month.

Lennon, hit by a coin in October when he was Hibs manager in an Edinburgh derby at Hearts’ Tynecastle ground, said: “It is a sore point of this season, whether it be bottles, coins, flares.

“It is just totally unacceptable. That should be safe environment for the players, they are entertaining the public, whether the Celtic public or the Scottish public.”

“I don’t like to see it. It has got to be stamped out. It just happens far too often.

“That could really have hurt Scott and if it had, God knows what we would be talking about now.

“It must be a social thing, I don’t know. It is not on. We need to find the culprits, arrest them and punish them.” — AFP