Cops swooped to arrest a Johnstone man after he made online threats to kill Celtic legend Neil Lennon.

Paisley Sheriff Court heard that Sean Cowan, 54, issued the chilling warning on the Facebook page of Rangers fan site ‘Follow Follow.’

Cowan claimed he would get a gun and shoot the former Celtic captain and manager in the head after he cupped his ears in celebration during current club Hibernian’s win at Ibrox earlier this season.

Lennon had led Hibs to a 3-2 victory over Rangers on Saturday, August 12.

At around 10pm that night, Cowan – who is a Rangers fan – posted comments which read: “Somebody give me a weapon and I will shoot this little terrorist c**t in the head with impunity.

“I’m serious. I would.

“I can get one, not a problem. Police Scotland are probably all over it now though. I have previous for firearms so I’m expecting a chap soon.”

Cowan, of Ramsay Avenue, tried to cover his tracks by deleting the messages from the social media site.

But he was snared thanks to an unnamed witness who took screenshots of the messages and passed them to police, leading to his arrest and conviction.

The details emerged yesterday when Cowan appeared in the dock at Paisley Sheriff Court for a pre-trial hearing.

He struck a deal with prosecutors which saw him plead guilty to one charge in exchange for the second being dropped.

Cowan pleaded guilty to breaking the Offensive Behaviour at Football and Threatening Communications (Scotland) Act 2012, in that he “did communicate material to another person which consisted of, contained or implied a threat or an incitement to carry out a seriously violent act against a person or persons of a particular description and was likely to cause a reasonable person to suffer fear or alarm.”

In exchange for his guilty plea, prosecutors dropped a charge that he had also breached the Communications Act 2003 “by means of a public electronic communications network” by “posting a message to the social media application Facebook, that was grossly offensive or of an indecent, obscene or menacing character, in that said message contained a grossly offensive remark regarding Neil Lennon.”

Procurator fiscal depute Pamela Flynn said the matter was reported to Police Scotland’s Football Co-ordination Unit on August 14 this year.

Officers headed to Cowan’s home to detain him and, when cautioned and charged, he said: “I’m disgusted.”

Defence solicitor Terry Gallanagh told the court: “Essentially the background is that there was a game at Ibrox involving Rangers and Hibernian.

“While many people on this internet site – the idiots, frankly – state to ‘never surrender’ or say ‘no surrender,’ Mr Cowan has surrendered and accepted his responsibility.

“He is truly sorry and disgusted with himself.”

Mr Gallanagh had asked Sheriff Vincent Canavan to deal with Cowan there and then.

But the sheriff ruled the matter was too serious to be dealt with on the spot and, instead, called for background reports from social workers ahead of sentencing.

Cowan, who has previous convictions for assault and assault to severe injury, was released on bail and could be caged when he returns to the dock next month.

Mr Lennon had also been the subject of a probe over his goal celebrations in the August win but police later confirmed he would not face any actio