Celtic looked to impose themselves in the early stages, with Motherwell soaking up much of the early pressure deep into their own half.

It was the complaints of violence outside the ground that forced the board to take action, fearful that FCU might blight St Johnstone’s reputation as a family-friendly club. Most Scottish ultras are European millennials, in whose time British fans stopped leading the way and began borrowing from the European game. It is mainly older adults and families who would probably use these seats so why do we keep hemming folk in.Footballs authorities seem to still fall on the side of seeing it as part of tradition rather than a great advert for noise abatement enforcement.

Drums are beaten mercilessly, sometimes for the full 90 minutes, often held aloft or sometimes taped securely to a seat to maximise the beat. My boy and his pals have been all over, and I see examples of them looking out for each other and especially the younger ones, even some lads helped them get home from Aberdeen after bus delays and a ticket problem. The advantage of having your own personalised drum is not just in the striking, colourful impact it makes – the drum is actually stronger and more resistant because it has a second metal sheet on which your chosen colours are applied. Buses were stoned, full-scale battles broke out on the terracing, often spilling on to the pitch, and we had a national team whose infamous supporters, the Tartan Army, were a byword for social disturbance, sacking London like a tribal horde. Before their evisceration of Palace, the fan group, all donned in black outfits, chanted in unison to the beat of a drum, while waving around some smoke canisters.The Motherwell boss insists his side are taking it one game at a time and are by no means getting ahead of themselves. And yet there is a generation of older men and women who pass judgement down on the young as if waving a flag and bouncing in unison is somehow worse than supporters’ buses being bricked as they made their way to and from the grounds. Everyone knew that and if you did not want to be part of that you simply moved to another area either side of them or further depending on the ground. Having to listen to that for the entire game last night, with the same boring chant, was akin to torture. He had a song in no time because of it and beating Rangers twice at Tynecastle in a short space of time was quite something.

Two minutes later it was almost a carbon copy as Spittal’s low pass again sent both van Veen and Mayo racing towards the home goal but this time the defender guided the ball safely back to his ‘keeper. The annoying thing with that though is that at some grounds there are empty stands and swathes of empty seats which are all in areas where there would be no trouble if they were used. The flags and music of the ‘Ultras’ a few seasons back certainly made it more atmospheric and I know this has been mentioned before but can they be revived by the new younger element? In the immediate aftermath, club legend and hall of famer Steven Hammell stepped up to take charge of his beloved Motherwell for the start of their 2022/23 cinch Premiership campaign.Jack McGarry, Lyle Fleming and Fraser Johnstone had been using a variety of items as drums at Fir Park, including the seats and an old drawer.

Trying so hard to emulate European ultras, bless their cotton socks," a Tottenham fan wrote, before another added: "I find this lot so funny because they’ve only turned up when they were top of the league.

With 19 minutes remaining the Rugby Park men finally found the target, thanks to the bit of luck that deserted them in the first half. Only a few weeks ago, St Johnstone played host to a Hearts side struggling with self-confidence, and burdened with doubt about the sustainability of their new management team.