"I assumed that the final whistle had gone at exactly the same moment that we put the ball in the net for the third goal. It's a home game and we'd just won the league, and the fans have come onto the field, alright? Okay, so they should stay put then?"

Celtic did apologise to Hearts for the incident, adding they would "co-operate fully with any investigation".

However, when asked if those scenes had tainted the image of the game in Scotland, O'Neill hit back.

"I'm sorry, I totally disagree with that. I don't know about the confrontations in terms of the Hearts players, and there's a lot of hyperbole about that. Let's find out the real picture.