Martin O’Neill has refused to back down from his defence of the Celtic supporters who entered the pitch during May’s dramatic title-winning victory over Hearts.

The two sides return to Celtic Park on Sunday for their first meeting since one of the most remarkable conclusions to a Scottish title race.

Hearts arrived in Glasgow knowing a point would secure their first league championship since 1960.

They were only minutes away from achieving it before Daizen Maeda equalised and Callum Osmand completed Celtic’s comeback deep into stoppage time.

Osmand’s goal sparked an enormous release of emotion around Parkhead, with supporters running onto the pitch as the destination of the title became clear.

The fans cleared the playing surface relatively quickly, allowing Celtic’s trophy celebrations to begin.

However, much of the discussion afterwards focused on the pitch invasion rather than Celtic’s extraordinary comeback.

Hearts said members of their playing and coaching staff had reported “serious physical and verbal abuse”, describing the scenes as “unacceptable” and “disgraceful”.

Celtic also released a statement addressing the pitch invasion while Police Scotland and the Scottish Professional Football League examined what happened.

O’Neill defended the supporters at the time and has now made it clear that his position has not changed. [The Herald]

“I couldn’t care less,” the Celtic manager said in relation to criticism over his prior comments about the pitch invasion. “I think I say too much at the end of the day.

“But absolutely not. If Hearts had won and their away fans had come onto the pitch – I’m telling you now, and it’s easy for me to say this – I would have accepted that there because it’s the first time they would have won the league for years and years and years and the euphoria of doing that there would have been there. Of course.

“And would we have been disappointed? Absolutely, to lose on your own pitch as well. All of those things.

“But if you take the bigger picture at the end of the day, if they had won – and they were very, very close to doing it – and their crowd had come on to celebrate with their players that is something I would have accepted. It’s easy me saying that, but that’s how I feel.”

O’Neill is right not to allow the narrative around that afternoon to be completely rewritten.

Any genuine allegation of abuse should be treated seriously, and entering the playing surface remains against stadium rules.

However, the wider scenes also represented raw emotion at the end of one of Scottish football’s greatest title races.

Celtic had looked out of the championship picture before producing a remarkable late run under O’Neill.

When Osmand rolled the ball into an empty net, months of tension were released in a few seconds.

The sight of supporters celebrating with their team was not unique to Celtic. Similar scenes have taken place across British football when promotions, survival and championships have been secured in dramatic circumstances.

O’Neill has now made clear that he would have accepted the same response from Hearts supporters had the result gone the other way.

The Celtic manager previously argued that the aftermath had been misrepresented, with the celebrations themselves becoming a bigger talking point than the achievement on the pitch.

Sunday’s reunion will inevitably revive memories of May. Let’s hope it’s the same result.