Martin O’Neill tonight claimed the remaining seconds of Celtic’s match against Hearts at Parkhead not being played was irrelevant – because the Tynecastle club were 3-1 down and would not have been able score the two goals they needed to win the Scottish title.
There was a pitch invasion by thousands of jubilant home supporters after Callum Osmand netted a breakaway goal in the eighth and final minute of injury-time in the William Hill Premiership decider to clinch the top flight trophy.
It took several minutes for police and stewards to restore order – several of Derek McInnes’ players were confronted by celebrating fans as they tried to make their way off the park - and referee Don Robertson did not restart the game.
That has provoked outrage among the smarting Hearts support as well followers of rival Scottish clubs because there were still 30 seconds left on the clock - there have been calls for the losers to be awarded a victory and an online petition has even been set up.
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However, it has since emerged that referee Don Robertson did blow his whistle to end the game. O’Neill argued that it did not matter that the remaining seconds of added-on time were not played because his side were leading by two goals and were assured of victory.
“I thought the game wasn't over,” he said. “So I'm trying to push some of our fans off the pitch again to play whatever's left. I think that the fourth official had said to me there was like a minute to go when we scored the goal.
" I was asking the fourth official, or one of the linesmen in the tunnel and he said, ‘It's over’. But I didn't know that. Derek came over to me and shook my hand, and he said, ‘Well done’.
“That was probably the moment I thought, ‘Well, the game must be over’. But I didn't know. But, obviously, it was 3-1 at the time. So, with the best will in the world, they're not going to get two goals in that time.”
O’Neill was concerned when he was told that some of the Hearts players, including Scotland striker Lawrence Shankland and defender Frankie Kent, had been involved in ugly skirmishes with Celtic fans during the pitch invasion.
“I’m not pleading the fifth amendment, I don’t know,” he said. “If there have been some Hearts players accosted then that’s just not right at all. I genuinely didn't see the scenes at the end, because I'm there.
“So I didn't see the incidents. Obviously, there's a lot of commotion in the tunnel, so I don't know. If Hearts players have been accosted by some of our fans, that's pretty serious.”
O’Neill praised his opposite number Derek McInnes for taking the Scottish title right to the wire and admitted the Hearts’ challenge this term had been a wake-up call for both Celtic and Rangers.
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"I haven't had a chance to speak to him,” he said. “But whoever was going to win, whoever was going to win the game, I would imagine that the same scenario would have happened.
“I think that Derek would have been on the pitch with his team, and I would have been sitting in a room with a towel over my head.
“We have to look at things in the summer. Hearts have been brilliant this year and it is a wake up call to Celtic and Rangers. They have been the story of the year. They were six or seven minutes from winning it and if they had they would have deserved it.”
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