Soccer:A man has been arrested after he tried to assault Celtic manager Neil Lennon during last night's Scottish Premier League game against Hearts at Tynecastle. The fan clambered from the Hearts section of the main stand onto the pitch and charged towards the Celtic boss who was on the touchline.
The supporter was taken away by police after the fracas at the Edinburgh stadium ended. Lothian and Borders Police said that the man has been reported to the Procurator Fiscal and would appear in court.
Lennon has had death threats in the past and in recent weeks was sent two parcel bombs, as were other high-profile Celtic supporters.
Last night's incident happened after Celtic striker Gary Hooper put the visitors two goals ahead in a match they won 3-0. The fan clambered onto the pitch and headed towards Lennon before the game could restart. Afterwards trouble flared in the Celtic section of the stadium with fans appearing to fight with police and stewards.
A police spokesman said: "A number of incidents took place during this match including some violent disorder. Lothian and Borders Police will fully investigate all of the incidents that occurred at the match this evening and will work closely with both football clubs and the SPL."
Hearts have launched an investigation and vowed to give their full co-operation to the authorities in a bid to rid the sport of incidents such as the one on Wednesday evening.
Former Northern Ireland midfielder Lennon has been in the headlines regularly this season for incidents on and off the field.
Police launched a major investigation after two parcel bombs were sent to Lennon in March. Celtic confirmed he was under 24-hour security surveillance.
The 39-year-old has endured threats and abuse throughout his career and was forced to retire from representing Northern Ireland in international football after claiming he had received death threats from a paramilitary group.
He was attacked in the street in the west end of Glasgow in 2008 and earlier this year received a package containing bullets. In November last year he was involved in a controversy over a rejected penalty claim - against Hearts at Tynecastle - for which he later received a touchline ban for his comments.
Football chiefs condemned this evening's incident. Scottish Football Association chief executive Stewart Regan said in a statement to Press Association Sport: "Clearly this kind of behaviour from supporters is wholly unacceptable.
"The safety of players, club officials and match officials is paramount on or around the field of play, and this clear breach of security is a matter I will be discussing with SPL chief executive Neil Doncaster tomorrow."
In a statement Hearts said: "An investigation into events which took place in the second half of tonight's game against Celtic is now under way. Hearts is a club which prides itself on its 'football for all' policy and these sorts of actions have no place in the game of football.
"We will give our full support to the stewards and police authorities in the ensuing investigation into the events at tonight's match."
SPL chief executive Neil Doncaster said such acts had no place in the game. He said: "The SPL deplores the actions of the individual involved. This type of behaviour has no place in Scottish football.
"The SPL will undertake a full investigation and will be reviewing reports from the SPL match delegate, match officials, the police and the clubs."
Celtic assistant manager Johan Mjallby said Lennon was "shaken" and that the attack could have been much worse. "What has happened to Neil is a dark day for Scottish football and I've never seen anything like it, he is shaken but okay," said Mjallby.
"I saw someone coming and we didn't react at first, we were obviously shocked and the guy could have had anything in his hands. I haven't really had time to speak to Neil, he has a strong character but how much can a guy take?
"We hope he is going to be in a good mood later on tonight but I really don't know at this given moment. We have to look into it, this can't happen again that is for sure, we all need to be secure in our jobs."
Hearts boss Jim Jefferies believed the feeling in the ground all night suggested something could happen during the match.
"We can't condone that, if it is getting to that stage it has got to be seriously looked at," he said. "It seemed to be a very hostile atmosphere tonight for some reason, I just felt all night there was something ready to spark it off."
Scotland's First Minister Alex Salmond said: "This sort of behaviour is utterly unacceptable.
"The Joint Action Group formed after the recent football summit is developing the eight-point plan to present to ministers before the start of the new season to tackle all issues of violence and bigotry in relation to football, because we cannot have the safety of individuals endangered by such mindless incidents, and our national game tarnished."
