Saturday 11 April 2015 22:55, UK
Celtic manager Ronny Deila feels Inverness had showed his side that the domestic treble is still a long way off after they held the Hoops to a 1-1 draw at the Tulloch Caledonian Stadium.
Leigh Griffiths opened the scoring for the visitors in the third minute only for Edward Ofere to level just over a minute later.
Home 'keeper Dean Brill, back in the side for the first time in 11 weeks after recovering from a knee problem, dislocated the same knee in the 15th minute and was replaced by Ryan Esson.
Esson denied the visitors on a couple of occasions, and with the draw, the Scottish League Cup winners went eight points ahead of Aberdeen at the top of the Scottish Premiership table.
Following their league game against Kilmarnock in midweek, Celtic face Caley in the Scottish Cup semi-final showdown at Hampden Park next weekend.
"It is going to be a tough game," said Deila. "They are number three in the league. Few have done it (treble) before and you see why, it is difficult.
"You have to get be up for every game and be ready.
"It was shown today that the game on Sunday is going to be even and we have to be really up for it.
"It was a disappointing performance. It is disappointing to lose a goal right away.
"There was a lack of energy and we were always a second too late in the challenges and didn't get the tempo or create the chances we wanted to, even though we had a lot of possession.
"One point is what we got, we have to make it right on Wednesday (against Kilmarnock)."
Dampener
Caley boss John Hughes admits Brill's injury put a dampener on a battling display.
The former Celtic defender said: "He dislocated his knee and that is the real dampener.
"I see how hard he was working in his rehab. The doctor put it back in but that will be him until the end of the season.
"He is very unfortunate. It is the same knee and a real downer for him.
"We have a right good deputy in Ryan Esson and we are grateful and thankful. He won't be fazed next week. He can handle it."
Hughes was pleased by the way his side fought back from the loss of Griffiths' goal.
He said: "It was disappointing to lose the goal so early but we showed the spirit to come back and got the goal back, thankfully, very which settled us.
"We were a match for Celtic in the first-half but in the second-half Celtic were the better team and we were too deep, camped in and couldn't keep the ball.
"But we will learn from it and will it have a bearing on next week's match? I very much doubt it."
