GLASGOW, SCOTLAND - MAY 16: (L-R) Celtic's Dane Murray, Liam Scales, Colby Donovan and Kieran Tierney celebrate at full time during a William Hill Premiership match between Celtic and Heart of Midlothian at Celtic Park, on May 16, 2026, in Glasgow, Scotland. (Photo by Ross Parker/SNS Group via Getty Images)
Three days on from Celtic’s title win and no media outlet has been able to produce evidence of a single assault on a Hearts player.
Eilidh Barbour of Sky Sports got the campaign underway in the aftermath of Callum Osman’s scoring Celtic’s third goal.
Despite having 20 cameras inside Celtic Park Sky haven’t been able to follow up those claims.
In the media areas (press box) Pat Nevin and Alan Preston broadcast about Lawrence Shankland being attacked. He wasn’t.
Henry Winter joined in. A visitor from England but as eager as the locals to put the boot into Celtic.
The area of the park that Shankland was in is in front of the media seats. They all have top end phones. Still there is no evidence of the claims made on Saturday afternoon.
SCALES HOLDS HEARTS AT BAY
There is no excuse for Celtic fans being on the pitch against Hearts.
There is also no excuse for fabricating stories
Lies were pushed on Saturday by Celtic’s media partners. There has been no apologies issued, Celtic haven’t corrected the record. BBC, Sky Sports or anyone else.
A wee punch in the neck the refs conveniently missed. pic.twitter.com/Pp7zhItf6c
— Sirts (@jtsktsogvj) May 19, 2026
The clip above was taken by a fan who didn’t have media access.
It shows a new role for Liam Scales, one that he stepped up to at Fir Park in the previous match.
When there is a prospect of a Celtic penalty there is always a lengthy delay.
Either the match referee never noticed it or the VAR official wants to carry out an extensive review to see if the on-pitch decision can be over-turned.
While that goes on Scales guards the penalty spot. It won’t be kicked up by any of the defending players. A few Celtic players will join in the operation but Scales is the main man.
A few Hearts players tried to knock Scales off his perch. They failed.
Pierre Kabore was the most determined. So determined that that he pushed out at Auston Trusty’s neck. The Celtic defender didn’t budge.
The penalty was confirmed, Arne Engels scored, Celtic won and Hearts finished up in second place in the SPFL Premiership.
Initially there was some fear among Celtic fans that Scales was the penalty taker. Now that his new role can be confirmed fans can relax a little when a penalty is awarded.
This is probably best described as a counter-tactic…… they have identified that the penalty taker will be subjected to all manner of niggling and even assault (any attack intended to take physical effect on the person of another) from opposition players while it is VAR checked in an effort to put them off.
The big centre back standing on the spot as a lightning rod for the abuse while all this goes on means the actual penalty taker can stay well away from the fray (or in this case, the affray) and calmly compose himself for the task ahead. Genius. A classic example of developing a clever counter-tactic.
And the only sort of ‘tactic’ McInnes brought to the game on Saturday was “hit the turf after every contact” – something he learned from Walter Smith 30 odd years ago!
Walter Smith cheatedand told his plays from England who played international football they were great players but Walter Smith seemed toget these players to go down and get foul outside the celtic box because Walter knew his players could hit a ball so for all yous acumhuns that call w.smith a legend and super sally the legend thzt guy is dirty rat his boy was out drink driving and he ended up hit a you boy and nearly killed him i really cant mind it happened years ago in 64 this month and im losifng the pot..oldco ranjurs cheated using EBT AND SIDELETTERS the corrupt sfa.spfl never had the heart to take there cheating titles òur cups cambell ogilvie started the ebt sideletters and he gets a job at corrupt hampden at plus he knew what he done at cheating liebrox sò the scumbags at corrupt hampden done nothing and shame? Scottish football and blame everyone else’s except there cheating self sad club and the biggest cheating clubever to play in the spfl sick club and cheating club ever liquidated in2012 the old club died but Charlie green said he bought oldco history its never happened anywhere else except liebrox joke
GIRFUY HEARTS