Celtic sink new boys

Inverness Caledonian 1 Celtic 3

The top-flight's newest recruits were reduced to 10 men after fourth official Alan Freeland had intervened as Juanjo was sent off for elbowing Neil Lennon.

But Barry Wilson cancelled out John Hartson's opener from the spot on the stroke of half-time. Celtic, however, had too much class and Stilian Petrov made amends for an earlier penalty miss with a wonder strike before the Welshman scored his fourth of the campaign.

Inverness manager John Robertson reacted furiously to Juanjo's controversial sending-off which was exploited by the champions.

Referee Dougie MacDonald and linesman Gordon Middleton missed the off-the-ball incident.

But what angered Robertson was that fourth official Freeland brought the issue to the attention of the referee. "I have seen the tape and, as the fourth official said, Juanjo stood on Neil Lennon accidentally but bizarrely he missed Neil Lennon take two steps and hit Juanjo on the back of the head with his left forearm."

INVERNESS CT: Brown, Tokely, McCaffrey, Munro, Golabek, Wilson (Prunty 70), Hart, Keogh, McBain (Black 81), Juanjo, Bayne (Hislop 65).

CELTIC: Marshall, Agathe, Varga, Balde (Laursen 84), Valgaeren, Petrov (Lambert 80), Lennon, Thompson, Wallace (Pearson 80), Hartson, Camara.

Referee: D McDonald.