Brendan Rodgers, the Celtic manager, has exonerated his players of any wrongdoing in the aftermath of a Police Scotland report that suggested a lap of honour from the Parkhead side in the wake of their 1-0 win over Rangers in September was the catalyst for unrest within the Rangers support.

Rodgers has maintained that his side make a point of applauding their support after every game - home and away -and has insisted that supporters also hold a burden of responsibility.

It has been claimed that disabled fans in the Ibrox support were knocked over as a section of the 800-strong visiting crowd attempted to force their way onto the pitch as Celtic celebrated the win over Steven Gerrard’s side, an action described by police as the reason for the subsequent trouble.

Tickets for the game had been cut from 8,000 to 800 for the first meeting of the season between the teams after Celtic had reciprocated a call from Rangers to reduce Celtic’s tickets for the game at Ibrox next month. That meant the Rangers support remained locked inside the ground as Celtic celebrated the win with a lap of honour around their home pitch.

Rodgers was irked that his players have taken the brunt of the finger-pointing and has suggested that supporters need to be held to account for their behaviour inside the ground. The Celtic manager also bristled at the suggestion his players behaved differently in the aftermath of the win over Rangers that they do any other week.

“It’s not necessarily a lap of honour,” said Rodgers.

“You guys will have seen it travelling up and down the country to all our games where we play. We always show an appreciation to our support wherever it is. The players’ behaviour on the pitch is important.

“But I think, off the field, of course, it’s the responsibility of everyone. I don’t think you can blame the players on the field if you have supporters that are trying to get over disabled supporters.

“That’s not the fault of the players on the pitch. There’s a responsibility to come and behave. “Like I’ve always said, give a real staunch support of your team.

“But every supporter, Celtic, Rangers, whoever, when you come into a ground, you have to behave.

“It’s an interesting one because when I first came into Celtic, I said to the players that what was going to be absolutely vital for us as a team is to have this incredible support with us,” said the Celtic manager.

“I made a point with the players that after every game, whether we win, lose or draw, we shall acknowledge the support. And from that very first game, the players have always done that.

“So whether it’s been at Parkhead or Ibrox or away at Inverness or Ross County, whether they’ve won, lost or drawn, we always recognise the incredible support we have and the efforts they are making to come up and down the country and fly in from all across Europe.

“So I think it’s a little unfair if the Celtic players are blamed for another team’s behaviour.

“‘Listen, there are enough issues around these games. You just take yourself back to the root of what the problem was. We’ve had a couple of years here when the games have been great.

“The intensity and the support. Everything. Now there seems to be more issues with it.”