CELTIC have written to the Scottish Football Association looking for clarification on the decision not to award them a penalty in Sunday's William Hill Scottish Cup semi-final defeat to Inverness Caledonian Thistle at Hampden.

Referee Steven McLean and his assistants failed to spot defender Josh Meekings using his hand to keep out Leigh Griffiths' goalbound header late in the first half with Celtic already leading at the time through Virgil van Dijk's free kick. Inverness went on to win the match 3-2 after extra time to reach their first ever Scottish Cup final.

In a statement posted on their website, Celtic revealed they had been "inundated" by their supporters to investigate why McLean did not award the penalty and show Meekings a red card, and felt they were "duty bound" to seek answers from the SFA. The loss ended Celtic's chances of a first treble in 14 years.

The statement read: "With the Club being inundated today, Celtic can confirm that it has written to the SFA regarding yesterday's match and in particular the incident involving Leigh Griffiths and Josh Meekings.

"First and foremost we absolutely congratulate Inverness Caledonian Thistle on reaching the Scottish Cup final. They are a fantastic club and reaching the final is a great achievement. However, given the level of reaction from our supporters and across football, we are duty bound to seek an understanding of what actually happened. We have not been given any other specific explanation so far and this is simply to understand the circumstances of what went on and why such an obvious error was made."