WE have seen supporters throwing missiles onto the park and launching them at players for a long time in Scottish football unfortunately and it is a worrying trend that seems to be coming back.

The bottle that was aimed at Borna Barisic on Friday night wasn’t the first incident that we have seen at Easter Road and Hibernian clearly have a real problem with supporters in that area of the ground.

Last season, Scott Sinclair was nearly hit by a bottle and James Tavernier was attacked by a fan that ran out of the stand. As a result of those moments of shame, Leeann Dempster revealed that Hibernian had installed new CCTV cameras.

But that didn’t deter someone from trying to injure Barisic after he was scythed down by Ryan Porteous.

Firstly, how did they get into Easter Road with a bottle that size? That is ridiculous and needs to be examined.

And then the perpetrators have to be punished. And I am talking some jail time and then a ban from every stadium in the country.

If you throw an object at a footballer, then you should be behind bars. If you launched a bottle on the street in the centre of Glasgow, you wouldn’t just get a fine and then be on your way.

Incidents like this are creeping back into Scottish football and we have seen coins, lighters and hot drinks all thrown at players by fans from a number of different clubs already this season.

It is happening too often and the Scottish FA, the SPFL and the Police have to do something about it before a player is seriously hurt.

Players will get worried now. The fans in some grounds are really close to the action and it would be ridiculous if they had to start watching the crowd for missiles coming towards then before going to take a throw-in, a free-kick or a corner.

It is unacceptable for players to be fearing for their safety when carrying out their job and every incident like this shames the clubs involved.

Hibernian confirmed on Monday that they had identified four people already and they will continue to review their footage.

Dempster, the board and the right-thinking fans will be embarrassed by this I’m sure.

A fine or a warning is no good here. It is only once you start jailing people that the penny will drop for these people who think that is acceptable behaviour at a football match in Scotland.

Do we need to wait until something really serious happens? It is ridiculous and the clubs need to really come down hard here.

More should have been done after the Scottish Cup final a few years ago when you had thousands of Hibernian fans running onto the pitch.

It was only ‘exuberance’ according to Rod Petrie but someone could have been seriously hurt that day and more should have been done in the aftermath of that incident.

Anyone that comes onto the pitch or throws something onto the pitch is banned from the game for life and is then given a spell behind bars.

Rangers were pilloried in all quarters for the behaviour of their fans earlier in the season and were punished by UEFA for sectarian singing as well.

But you have to be fair to the supporters, their conduct has improved and they have changed. They knew they were hurting the club, they knew they had to clean up their act and have done so. Fair play.

Now it is up to other supporters to do the same because these idiots that attack players or throw things at them are damaging the reputation of the club they love and the image of Scottish football as well.

The people beside them are not going to call out their pals so it is up to the clubs and the authorities to deal with these disgraceful incidents in the strongest possible manner.

If Hibernian cannot find the answers, then maybe that part of Easter Road should be closed for a few games. And that is where the SFA and the SPFL could come in and help solve a problem that is sadly blighting Scottish football.

AND ANOTHER THING

I am sure some Rangers fans would accept four points from the last two games of 2019 as Steven Gerrard’s side face Kilmarnock and Celtic.

I think they are good enough to get six and to win both fixtures but nobody at Ibrox will be thinking about what lies ahead before the Boxing Day clash is taken care of.

Rangers faced a really difficult run that included Aberdeen away, Motherwell away and Hibernian away and they should have taken maximum points this month.

They are three very difficult challenges on the road and the result and performance at Easter Road in particular was very impressive indeed.

To be two goals up in the first few minutes was terrific and they were quality goals as well as Ryan Kent and Joe Aribo scored. Then Jermain Defoe showed his class to clinch a well deserved victory.

Now Rangers need to hit those levels again when they face Kilmarnock. I know they lost to Motherwell at the weekend and they don’t have a manager but going to Ibrox is the perfect way to lift them.

Rangers will need to work well, move the ball quickly and be lethal in front of goal. If they do that, they win the game because they are a better team than Kilmarnock.

Steven needs his side to be going to Parkhead with another win behind them and they can take all three points in the Old Firm.

Last term, even down to ten men, they were the better side there and could have won that game. Rangers know they can go there and win on Sunday.

But the job needs to be done against Killie first if we are to end the year on a real high.