Police hunt two groups of sectarian Hearts fans
Seperate incidents were reported to have occurred on the 10.30am and 1.15pm trains travelling to Glasgow on Saturday ahead of the match at Celtic Park.
Hearts had an allocation of less than 2,000 supporters which were given to season ticket holders which should make identification of supporters fairly straight forward.
Commenting on the issue Chief Inspector David Marshall of BTP told the Edinburgh Evening News: “This sort of behaviour is appalling and absolutely unacceptable and why football supporters feel the need to behave in such a manner is beyond me.
“There are other passengers on the train who are not attending the matches and should be able to travel, and work without having to be faced with it.”
Later on the Edinburgh side issued their own statement saying: “Heart of Midlothian Football Club strongly condemns any anti-social and offensive behaviour carried out by a small group of its supporters at the weekend.
“The club works tirelessly to create a family friendly atmosphere at Tynecastle and in the surrounding area and we expect all supporters to take these standards with them whenever they travel to see Hearts.
“We apologise to those individuals who were rightly upset by what seems to have been totally unacceptable behavior and can assure them that the individuals in question do not represent the club or our values.
“This minority of fans claiming to support the club are not welcome at Hearts and we will be working very closely with British Transport Police to help identify any individual who is besmirching the good name of Heart of Midlothian Football Club and bring them to justice.”
Next week Police Scotland will have a major operation underway with thousands of Poland supporters believed to have bought up tickets for the home sections at Hampden for the crucial Euro 2016 qualifier between Scotland and Poland.