Hearts chairman Calum Paterson has piped up again about events surrounding his club’s collapse in last season’s Scottish Premiership title decider at Celtic Park.

On a day of destiny in Glasgow, the Edinburgh side were denied a historic title win by a pair of late goals by Celtic’s Daizen Maeda and Callum Osmand, triggering wild celebrations.

Hearts’ response to the on-pitch celebrations was to immediately walk up the tunnel. They ended up leaving the stadium still in their jerseys, arriving back at Tynecastle in tears.

After initially having their claims that the game was ended prematurely debunked, they then jumped the gun with allegations of assault which remain the subject of investigations.

Calum Paterson on Celtic’s title win: ‘It was really disappointing’

Speaking to the Hearts website, chairman Paterson said: “The way it ended was really disappointing, especially after everything the players and staff had put into it.

“I think they deserved a better outcome, but we should recognise and pay tribute to them for what they did achieve, which was actually exceptional. The final week was difficult on a number of fronts.

“Amongst other things, we were disappointed by the unprecedented decision that, as the team leading the league at the time of the split, we had to play our final game away from home.

“The circumstances at the end of that game were, from our perspective, completely unacceptable. We took advice and we made our concerns very clear to the football authorities.

“Standing back from it all, I think we’d like to see greater transparency and consistency around key decisions in Scottish football, because standards and processes matter, particularly at important points in the season, and I think there’s room for improvement.

“I understand the frustration about how little supporters heard from us afterwards.

“There was, and remains, a live police investigation into actions against our players, and that obviously limited what we could say publicly, but I think even with those constraints, I think we could have communicated more clearly.

“In the end, we had to think about what was best for Hearts. With a new management team coming in, a new season to prepare for, we felt the right thing for us was to draw a line and look forward.

“But our supporters should know that we did everything we could to stand up for Hearts. We will always do that, and we certainly haven’t forgotten what happened last season.

“But our focus now has to be on putting the club in the strongest possible position for this season and beyond and of course communicating better along the way.”