12 May 2011
Lennon landed several kicks on the grounded man before he was dragged back by Thompson and Johan Mjallby. Once the police hauled the assailant away, and some kind of order returned on the field, what suddenly reared around Tynecastle was a vicious intensity.
In the directors box, three individuals were singled out by stewards, and reacted with fury before then approaching Dr John Reid, the Celtic chairman, to smooth out whatever the disturbance had been.
Then in the away end, Celtic fans began to fight with police and stewards as some were pulled from of their seats and dragged out of one of the exits. It prompted a fierce, almost visceral chant in support of the IRA, which in turn caused a tumult around the stadium. There had been similar chants earlier, with the home fans responding by singing The Billy Boys, but that dark edge had diminished.
Now it returned, full of vengeance and aggression, and it seemed once more that what was taking place on the field bore no relation to what was happening around it. A flare was let off during the commotion and it was only by the time the green smoke had carried off into the dark sky that some of the fury dissipated, too. It had been nasty, but also short-lived.
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