Scott Brown has criticised Celtic fans’ anti-Dermot Desmond protest at the Alfred Dunhill Links Championship.

Much publicity has surrounded the protests, which triggered an immediate Celtic statement in condemnation. They saw tennis balls thrown onto the green with crossed-out images of Desmond.

It was the latest escalation in a relationship between the fans and hierarchy which appears fundamentally broken, though Desmond continues to vow that he will not be forced out by his detractors.

Legendary ex-Parkhead captain Brown has criticised the protests, defending Desmond and the club’s board as a whole.

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Scott Brown on Celtic fan protests: ‘It’s not great’

Speaking on The Warm-Up, Brown said: “The tennis balls don’t help. It wasn’t great to be fair. You don’t want that getting outside football. I’ve had that happen to me, it happens to you in the streets, you get called all sorts.

“But it has to be kept at the games, it can’t be every two seconds. The man’s got to live as well and so do other people. They wouldn’t like that to happen to them.

“I understand the negativity coming towards the board, but they need to somehow merge back together. The fans need the board, and the board need the fans and they all need the players.

“If there’s disconnect somewhere, it becomes a hard, hard place to play football because everyone’s thinking negativity week after week and it’s not great.

“For me, what the board did for me when I was there, they were brilliant with me. Peter [Lawwell], Michael [Nicholson], Dermot, they were all fantastic with me.

“I know time has moved on. The changing rooms have been done up. I wanted them done up years ago but Peter wouldn’t authorise it for me! They’re making the stadium better. They’ve put money into the team.

“If you look at two weeks ago, every Rangers fan wanted Derek McInnes out. Living in Glasgow, there’s always going to be 20/30 thousand fans turn one week, turn another week.”

“It all went so much quieter when Martin (O’Neill) won the first six games in the league, how the fans started to bounce back in. So it shows you what winning games does. It doesn’t take away from everything.”