SO it turns out that being in the Champions League isn't the only way to make money in football.

There was serious dough to be had from backing Morton to dump Celtic on their backsides in the League Cup. They were 9/1 to pull it off and at Celtic Park last night anyone bold enough to back them witnessed a significant windfall. Celtic's hopes of winning the trophy for the first time under Neil Lennon, their dream of a treble, all that satisfaction over their vibrant financial figures: it turned to ashes in their hands.

This was the worst it has been for Lennon and Celtic since Ross County beat them in the 2010 Scottish Cup semi-final. Morton are second bottom of the SPFL Championship and hadn't won in five games before last night. Annan, Dumbarton and Queen of the South are among those to have beaten them already this season. Yet they soaked up everything Celtic hurled at them and somehow, amazingly, survived. They lived an absolute charmed life at times; it got faintly ridiculous as Mikael Lustig missed a late sitter and Charlie Mulgrew hit the post in a frantic pummelling. None of it mattered.When it was all over they had delivered something utterly remarkable: their first win at Parkhead since 1971.

Goalkeeper Nicolas Caraux will never know another game like it. Absolutely everything Celtic tried seemed to end up being saved or punched away by him, although in truth their finishing was uninspired and clumsy. It seemed only a matter of time before they scored, even when the game somehow went into extra-time, but instead Parkhead - housing a crowd of barely 15,000 - was stunned by Morton coming off the ropes after 95 minutes to score. Substitute Archie Campbell ran at Efe Ambrose on the rarest of counter-attacks and when he cut inside him Ambrose caught the ball with his arm as he tried to turn. Referee Bobby Madden gave the penalty and Dougie Imrie rammed it low and hard past Lukasz Zaluska's left hand.

Celtic faced AC Milan last midweek and take on Barcelona next Wednesday. Who on earth guessed that this one in between would leave any sort of impression on their season, let alone create a scar which will live with them for the rest of the campaign?

Parkhead had that weird, distracted sort of atmosphere it can get on cup ties like this. Even before they knew how it would end it was a far, far bigger occasion for Morton, which was obvious from the racket made by their following of nearly 2500. Celtic didn't have a slice of luck around goal all night, but that wasn't remotely the story of the game. They simply didn't have the craft to break through Morton and they were up against a team that defended heroically. They couldn't work their way into space or get free of Morton's back four often enough. Too often their passes, shots or headers were blocked or simply flew harmlessly to nowhere.

Morton were all about dogged, incredible resistance. Their defenders should be given the Freedom of Greenock, so organised and focused were they in dealing with whatever Celtic tried to throw at them. Tomas Peciar and Jonathan Page, the centre-halves, seemed to get a head on every one of the countless crosses into their box and Caraux could compile a DVD of saves which could get him a move to Camp Nou.

Morton spent most of the night with 10 men behind the ball and only their young Gambian striker, Kabba Cham, up front. In truth they created next to nothing other than the penalty and could rarely keep hold of it for long enough to give themselves much of a breather.

Celtic had put out a strong team. Only Fraser Forster, Georgios Samaras and Emilio Izaguirre were absent, with Kris Commons, Anthony Stokes and Adam Matthews among the substitutes. Eight men who had played in the San Siro a week ago were in the starting team: Lustig, Ambrose, Virgil van Dijk, Charlie Mulgrew, Scott Brown, Nir Biton, Derk Boerrigter and Teemu Pukki. There was no point cataloguing all the Celtic chances: too many, too similar, all with the same outcome. Suffice it to say the best of them were those late ones from Lustig and Mulgrew. Whatever Celtic tried, it didn't work. Stokes came off the bench, then Matthews, then Commons. By the end their entire team was occupying Morton's box including Zaluska at corners.

When the whistle went after 90 minutes Imrie turned to applaud the Morton fans, unaware that the tie was about to go into extra-time rather than a replay. It was an amusing moment but, boy, did Imrie have the last laugh.