Hearts manager Craig Levein admits he has felt threatened in the dugout at opposition grounds but always ensures he does not antagonise fans.
Hibernian head coach Neil Lennon was assaulted in the Tynecastle technical area for a second time this week when he was struck with a coin.
Hearts goalkeeper Zdenek Zlamal and both assistant referees also came under attack weeks after an Aberdeen fan was arrested at Tynecastle over an incident involving Jambos defender Jimmy Dunne.
But Levein insisted Tynecastle and its confined space is not the only stadium where crowd behaviour is an issue.
“Listen I have been to lots of grounds where there’s interaction with people behind the dugouts,” he said. “It’s not just at Tynecastle.
“I have been spat on, I have been called this, that and the next thing. And I try my hardest not to react. And I think it’s on all of us to try not to react to these things, to try and focus on the game and not get involved with the crowd. I think that’s incumbent upon every manager.”
When asked if he had ever felt threatened, Levein said: “Once or twice but again the sensible approach is not to get involved. Don’t antagonise anybody, keep your head down and walk away.
“There’s no winners if you get involved with people behind the dugouts.”
Levein condemned the missile-throwing but feels the furore over Wednesday’s Edinburgh derby has been disproportionate.
“There were 20,000 people there and five arrests,” he said. “Of course we have all spoken at length about the seriousness of the incidents but I repeat there were five people arrested at the match. It’s not as if there was a full-scale war.
“Definitely people went across the line and we just need to make sure that it’s highlighted that people behave themselves from now.
“Listen, there’s idiots everywhere and it’s very difficult to control 20,000 people. It’s like most things, when something happens we go right to the other end of the scale. There have been worse situations in Scottish football.
“We just have to take a step back and consider the best way to deal with it rather than everyone getting too excited.
“I thought the atmosphere was brilliant, it was up there with the best atmosphere, with both teams doing so well just now and everyone so keyed up. And then whether it’s people’s nature or they have had too much to drink, I don’t know, but some people just seemed to go over the line.
“There were coins thrown at games last week, there were coins thrown the week before. It’s something that happens. It’s unforgivable but it’s something that happens.
“I don’t know how to deal with it, that’s the problem. If people go into their pocket and throw a coin, how do you deal with it? We don’t want to be in the situation again where we had barriers before the Hillsborough thing.”
Levein takes his side to Celtic Park on Saturday and is set to employ the tactics of containment that worked for 50 minutes at BT Murrayfield last week before a penalty allowed the Hoops to set up a 3-0 win.
“If we win 1-0 with a set-piece I’ll be thrilled,” Levein said.
“People talk about going through there and having a go. We went to Rangers and had a go and were 2-0 down after 10 minutes. The best approach is one that gets you points.”
ga('create', 'UA-72310761-1', 'auto', {'name': 'pacontentapi'});
ga('pacontentapi.set', 'referrer', location.origin);
ga('pacontentapi.set', 'dimension1', 'By Gavin McCafferty, Press Association Sport');
ga('pacontentapi.set', 'dimension2', '4e034372-87b9-444a-941f-cbb233e5f020');
ga('pacontentapi.set', 'dimension3', 'paservice:sport,paservice:sport:club-news,paservice:sport:football');
ga('pacontentapi.set', 'dimension6', 'story');
ga('pacontentapi.set', 'dimension7', 'composite');
ga('pacontentapi.set', 'dimension8', null);
ga('pacontentapi.set', 'dimension9', 'sport:football');
ga('pacontentapi.send', 'pageview', { 'location': location.href, 'page': (location.pathname + location.search + location.hash), 'title': 'Hearts manager Craig Levein: I\u2019ve felt threatened in the opposition dugout'});
