Up their wallets – then complain if they get carried away

pick up. In Sweden recently an angry mob chained the training ground gates and left a note telling the players to walk home.

The Rangers base at Auchenhowie got the padlock treatment a few years ago as well after an Old Firm doing.

Neil Lennon can talk to his old team-mate Henrik Larsson. When he was boss at Helsingborgs there was a riot after they were relegated and his son needed a police escort off the pitch.

Luis Figo got a pig’s head lobbed at him in an El Clasico for daring to cross the divide.

At the San Siro some bampot hurled a moped off the top tier.

And Borussia Dortmund supporters covered their pitch with tennis balls a few years back.

No one is safe. Zlatan Ibrahimovic was viewed as the messiah at Malmo but their punters torched his statue after he dared to buy shares in a company that owns a chunk of rivals Hammarby.

Robbie Neilson is back at

Hearts – the last time he was there some Jambos hired a plane to fly a banner over Tynecastle calling for his head.

Is it sane behaviour? No. Of course it’s not.

But neither is getting up at the crack of dawn to follow your team all over the country.

Neither is spending hard earned dosh on a season ticket with no chance of actually getting into a game.

Neither is feeling heartbroken when the dream you’ve had for decades is in danger of turning into a nightmare. Nothing is sane about being a football supporter.

There are no excuses for acting like a ned. Let’s get that straight.

But there are ingredients that might explain it the other night. When teams are toiling, they usually get booed, fans make their feelings known and that’s how they affect change.

They can’t do that right now. Turning up at Parkhead might have breached Covid rules but it was the only avenue they had to voice displeasure at a campaign heading down the drain.

The idiots who got violent diluted the message but if it had been a couple of hundred sociallydistant fans making a protest, it would not have been an issue.

Celtic would not even have been in a position to go for 10 in a row if it’s wasn’t for fans protesting in the 90s.

So let’s hold fire a bit when it comes to taking aim at the charge of the Green and White Brigade.