Scottish: O'Neill calls for kick-off time changes

Celtic manager Martin O’Neill has welcomed calls for high-risk matches in the Scottish Premier League to be given early kick-off times.

There has been much debate over the controversial 5.35pm starting slot for televised games on Saturday.

Crowd disturbances at Aberdeen last weekend saw the Dons’ and Rangers’ players forced off the field for 20 minutes.

O’Neill insists his side would be happy to play at an earlier time if it meant peace was maintained.

The late kick-off time has been blamed for the trouble at Pittodrie, where alcohol consumption was believed to be a root-cause of the problems.

It is believed that bringing the start of these matches forward to midday would eliminate the threat of drink-induced violence at grounds north of the border and O’Neill would support such a move.

O’Neill said: ‘‘The only reason the game at Pittodrie kicked off later at the weekend was because of television and it would normally have started at 3pm.

‘‘It would be entirely up to Sky and the SPL if the kick-off was brought forward for these games but I have no problem playing at any given time.

‘‘My own take is, with the exception of the snowball incidents a couple of weeks ago, I find the atmosphere up at Pittodrie actually very, very good indeed.

‘‘I can only comment on the couple of games that we played there last season and particularly the first time, when we drew 1-1, because it was an exceptionally good atmosphere and obviously when Aberdeen decide to get behind their players it can be really good.

‘‘Other than getting plenty of abuse from one gentleman in particular from behind the dug-out at Pittodrie, I’ve found it excellent there and the atmosphere when we were last there was good. It was hostile, but good.

‘‘I’m not playing the whole thing down because I’m the first one to say that incidents like that are out of order and there’s no place for them.

‘‘But, at this minute, I wouldn’t want to go any further and start talking about banning fans.

‘‘But the incident at Aberdeen on Saturday was the first real big incident that has caused us to look at crowd trouble since I’ve come up here and I’ve been here for a year and nine months.’’