A 26-year-old man has gone on trial accused of attacking Celtic manager Neil Lennon during a game in Scotland in May.
John Wilson denies charges of assault and breach of the peace, both of which are aggravated by religious prejudice, during the Hearts versus Celtic game at Tynecastle stadium in Edinburgh.
He is alleged to have attacked Lennon near the Celtic dug-out as the game proceeded on the pitch. The match took place during Celtic's title run-in with Glasgow rivals Rangers.
The court heard from former police officer, James Church, 54, who is assistant to the head of safety, security and operations at Celtic Football Club.
Mr. Church said: "This particular evening I felt the atmosphere was worse. During the first half I made two telephone calls to my colleague in the control room to ask for more stewards or security officers to come to the area because I felt there wasn't enough stewards there if it had kicked off."
Church said that the atmosphere had deteriorated once Celtic scored their second goal of the game in the second half.
He said: "The atmosphere was poisonous and I was getting quite concerned because we had scored a second goal and the crowd were angry."
Church described how he had been behind the dug out and behind Lurgan-born Neil Lennon and other members of the management team.
Wilson is accused of assaulting Lennon and of breaching the peace by conducting himself in a disorderly manner, running onto the field during the match, running at the away team dug-out, shouting, swearing, making a sectarian remark, all to the alarm and annoyanceof others and causing further disturbance within the crowd there.
He denies all the allegations against him. The trial continues.
