Inverness CT 0 Celtic 2: Neil Lennon might wish to play it down but he watched his Celtic side take another confident step towards the treble as they eased into today’s Scottish Cup quarter final draw.

A first-half goal from striker Georgios Samaras and a second-half spot kick from Scott Brown, which made it three goals in three games for the rejuvenated Hoops skipper.

Celtic are already in the final of the Scottish Communities League Cup final where they will play Kilmarnock at Hampden next month, and are one point above Rangers at the top of the Clydesdale Bank Premier League with a game in hand.

Lennon said: “Things can change very quickly but we are really pleased with where we are at the minute.

“It was the toughest tie we probably could have had, apart from being at Ibrox, so I'm thrilled to get through it. We wanted to be in all the competitions at the end of yesterday and we are, so it's good.”

Once again the Irishman showed that he was unafraid to make changes to a winning team.

Defenders Adam Matthews and Kelvin Wilson, midfielder Kris Commons and Samaras came in for Cha Du-ri, Emilio Izaguirre, James Forrest and Anthony Stokes, the latter two starting on the bench.

“I felt it was the best way to go in terms of matching their pace going forward and we needed an 'out ball' at the top end of the pitch. I thought Samaras did that for us and I thought Wilson and Matthews did that at the other end of the pitch.”

Angry Caley Thistle boss Terry Butcher described the encounter as a training game for Celtic.

“We were too easy to beat against Celtic. We made two horrendous mistakes which is unforgivable.

“It's Celtic away next week so we will pick ourselves up for that.

“In a way it's good to have that opportunity to get back at them on their patch because no one will expect us to do anything.”