Scottish Premier League/Celtic - 3 Inverness - 1: Super Caley went ballistic against Celtic again but not in the usual manner as the first-half dismissal of the Spanish striker Juanjo left the Inverness club seething with a sense of injustice while their opponents returned to the top of the table.
Caledonian Thistle's reputation was once bolstered by memorable Scottish Cup wins against the Glasgow side and for long spells yesterday they threatened an upset in this first SPL meeting. That was despite the 18th-minute dismissal of Juanjo for an off-the-ball incident with Neil Lennon, with television evidence indicating that the former Leicester player was equally culpable.
Only the fourth official, Alan Freeland, spotted what happened although he missed Lennon clipping his opponent on the head and wrongly insisted Juanjo attempted to headbutt his opponent when he actually pushed the Celtic man in the chest.
The Inverness manager John Robertson has said that he will consider an appeal. "After the match I asked the fourth official for his version of what happened then watched the television pictures for myself, and Alan Freeland's account bore no resemblance in my opinion," said Robertson.
Martin O'Neill claimed he did not see the incident, but the Celtic manager will view the tape and fine Lennon if he does not like what he sees.
He said: "Our boys were up in arms about what they said they saw and they said it was a headbutt, but if TV evidence shows something to the contrary then you want justice done."
Even without the injured Chris Sutton, Celtic had more than enough quality to break down the resistance of their industrious opponents. Henri Camara showed some intelligent positional play but it was John Hartson who broke the deadlock on 25 minutes with a textbook header.
It says a lot for the character of the home side that they levelled by the interval through a Barry Wilson penalty after Bobo Balde handled.
Stilian Petrov missed a second-half penalty, but the visitors stayed patient and the Bulgarian midfielder showed more composure when he fired home from 18 yards on 67 minutes to regain Celtic's advantage. Hartson, almost inevitably, added a third after Mark Brown fumbled a Joos Valgaeren cross.
