Football fans were allowed back into stadiums as of Monday after restrictions were lifted by the Scottish government.
In Edinburgh on Tuesday night, Hearts faced St Johnstone in their first home clash since supporters were allowed to return to Tynecastle.
The atmosphere was electric in Gorgie with fans funneling into Hearts pubs across the area and catching up with friends they had not seen for the best part of a fortnight.
And to welcome fans back, Edinburgh Live headed down to the home of Hearts to garner some Jam Tart opinion on whether the winter break moving forward was a good idea, whether they felt football fans were mistreated and what the return of football meant for them.
First up was Daniel Mcleod, 24, who has been a Hearts season ticket holder since he was eight years old.
On whether he felt the winter break should have been moved forward or not and whether football fans have been unfairly treated, he said: “Without a doubt for sure. Football is nothing without the fans. Especially with some quite poor weather with snow, so bringing it forward was definitely the right decision.
“It is difficult to say (if football fans were mistreated), I think everyone has been singled out in some way. Football plays a massive role in people's lives and they rely on football as something to do and socialise and get the stresses of their lives out. I would not say football fans have been singled out but they have had to deal with hardships.”
On the loss of football and being back at Tynecastle, he said: “Great, it is like I have never been away. Been a season ticket holder since I was eight year old and it is just great, hopefully three points for hearts later on.
“It was hard. Football is a massive part of my life. I love watching it and love playing it. Outside of work its eat sleep and breath football and really enjoy it. Just glad to be back and seeing tens of thousands of hearts fans back in the stadium.”
Next up was Luke Peca, 39. We asked him about the winter break moving forward as well as whether he feels football fans have been unfairly targeted.
He said: “With Omicron and everything else it made sense to make a window to play games later and it’s not like that period of time is great weather wise and it was a kindness for fans in a way but it was hard to lose the derby.
“In hindsight possibly. One of these things I understand the greater good of why they did it. After the fact it is clear it never really helped (reduce the spread) but I don't think anyone really knows what to do in this situation. I’m not massively bitter about it, I’d have preferred for it not to have happened, but I get it.”
On the loss of football he added: “Loss of football is a shame more than anything else. It is the social element I miss the most and you can say the same for most social elements with covid. With football on the tele you feel you can still scratch the itch but you can't beat being in their shoulder to shoulder with your cohorts and having a wee bounce when a goal goes in.”
On being back at Tynecastle and whether he felt fans had been mistreated, Jo Pitt, 25, said: “It's good to be back! This dirty January night under the lights at Tynecastle. I've been missing it. Definitely.
“You see on the Twitter feed Nicola talking about rugby fans, and it seems like they've definitely got it a bit better. Football fans are seen to get the rotten end of the stick really!
“It's just the preconception about football fans like being more rowdy, maybe not listening to the rules and regulations, I don't really know where that comes from.”
A group of fans, with some Super J supporters in amongst the Hearts, stopped to give an insight into what some fans were up to during the early winter break.
Angus Rive, 27, a Hearts fan said: “I watched different kinds of football, so instead of watching Hearts, we were off to Pollock and watched the West of Scotland League Scotland where you could still get in.”
His St Johnstone supporting pal, Finbaz Fury, 26, commented on the treatment of football fans by saying: “Everybody wants to be singled out. Everybody feels like they've been singled out because of restrictions, because they all affect each other. But everybody's in the same boat. Better off to have the circuit breaker. Get it out of the way and start again.”
Hearts went on to beat St Johnstone 2-0 at Tynecastle in front of a boisterous crowd.
Barrie Mckay went on to wow the home support with defender John Souttar experiencing pelters from the stands after signing a pre-contract with Rangers last week.
