O’Neill brushes off pitch invasion amid Celtic fallout

O’Neill calls – Martin O’Neill refused to condemn the pitch invasion after Celtic’s title-clinching win over Hearts, calling it “nonsense,” and faced immediate backlash as his comments also conflicted with what he said after the match about how long the game actually lasted.

The moment Celtic clinched the title, the scenes that followed quickly stopped being just about celebration.

By the time Martin O’Neill sat down for a heated conversation on talkSPORT with Jim White and Simon Jordan on Monday. he was being asked about the “shameful scenes” at the end of Celtic’s title-clinching win over Hearts. Pitch invaders ran onto the field. Hearts players were accosted by Celtic supporters. And when the focus turned to the embarrassment inflicted on Scottish football, O’Neill would not condemn it.

Asked about the hordes of supporters who ran on to Celtic Park, O’Neill batted the whole thing away as “nonsense”. He also took aim at what he felt was “hyperbole” over the issue of Hearts players being accosted on the pitch.

What landed hardest was not only the refusal to call it out. but the way his stance appeared to clash with what he had said just days earlier. O’Neill had pointed to the Callum Osmand goal—the one that made it 3-1—and explained that once it went in. the game was essentially over. He said. “The fact is that when we scored the third goal. the game was essentially over. there were about eight seconds left. or whatever the case may be. ” referring to Osmand’s strike.

But post-match on Saturday, O’Neill himself had described a different reality. He revealed that the fourth official had told him there was still around a minute left after Osmand scored. Only when Derek McInnes sought him out in the tunnel for a handshake did O’Neill realise the match had been brought to a finish.

So when his Monday radio appearance rolled around. he managed to deliver comments that left listeners with a stark sense of contradiction: the pitch invasion fallout was treated like an exaggeration. while the question of when the game actually ended had clearly mattered enough for him to describe being told there was still “around a minute” left.

Celtic did not ignore the chaos. On Sunday night, the club issued a statement apologising to Hearts for the post-match disorder.

Then, less than 24 hours later, O’Neill appeared on national radio still framing much of the criticism as “nonsense,” leaving the club’s apology hanging over a conversation that seemed determined to minimise the damage.

The exchange with White and Jordan turned tense. As O’Neill became increasingly agitated, he pointed to a previous incident when discussing Scottish Cup issues at Ibrox. He said: “Was it not seen at Ibrox when both sets of fans came on to the pitch?”

For the avoidance of doubt in that comparison, the details mattered: it was Celtic fans who spilled onto the pitch first on that occasion, with Rangers fans then retaliating.

The bigger point, though, was what was missing. The pitch invasion after the Hearts match was the subject. Hearts players being accosted was the subject. Celtic supporters running onto the pitch was the subject. O’Neill refused to condemn the intrusion outright, and called the narrative around it nonsense.

For Derek McInnes and the Hearts players, that matters. The denial and deflection leave an unmistakable sour taste because it came from a figure who, in his Celtic role and his standing among supporters, carries weight beyond the microphone.

Celtic now face another immediate test: a Scottish Cup Final against Dunfermline on Saturday afternoon. The question hanging over everything is simple and uncomfortable—if supporters behaved as they did at Parkhead after the title win, what stops it from happening again after another late moment?

This should have been the sort of week that carried O’Neill out on a high. Even the idea of a farewell cup double framed it as celebration. Instead, the fallout has reshaped the story, with the decision to dismiss the invasion as “nonsense” becoming the headline all its own.

As the week turns. the focus for many will be on preventing it ever happening again—because while there is always room for emotion in football. there is no justification for treating pitch invasions and players being targeted as an overreaction. O’Neill’s comments did not meet that standard. and in doing so. he placed himself squarely in the middle of the problem rather than helping move it forward.

Martin O'Neill Celtic Hearts pitch invasion Scottish football talkSPORT Jim White Simon Jordan Callum Osmand Derek McInnes Scottish Cup Final Dunfermline