Steven Naismith fires back in Celtic ticket row

Steven Naismith has told Celtic that Hearts will always put their own fans first when it comes to ticket allocations.

In March Scottish Cup rules meant that 3,500 away fans cheered Ange Postecoglou’s side to victory as Robbie Neilson’s time in charge at Tynecastle came under serious threat.

Naismith was in charge by the time Celtic celebrated winning the SPFL Premiership title in May but the ticket allocation was down to 1,200, on Sunday there will be 561 away fans cheering on the visitors from a section of the Roseburn Stand.

Whether Hearts can fill the rest of the stand remains open to question, three days before the match tickets are still available to home fans.

Celtic will have their view, just like we have our view with what we get when we go to away grounds.

Over the last five or six years, the momentum has been building for the club in general, whether that be with the new stand being built, the backing the club have got or the foundation of the fans taking control of the club.

All the optimism comes with creating a bigger following and, first and foremost, we need to look after our fans and give them the opportunity to support us.

As a country, we can look around at other leagues and see the way things are done. There are so many aspects of the game in Scotland that we can improve but every club is looking out for themselves and rightly so, to give their fans the best opportunity to watch their team.

After eight Premiership matches Hearts have picked up 11 points, half of the total that Celtic have collected.

With a trip to Ibrox coming up next weekend there is pressure mounting on Naismith to deliver the results that will ensure that the home fans are selling out Tynecastle to justify ticket reductions for away fans.