LEIGH Griffiths' shelved his plans for a teacake-themed celebration as Inverness Caledonian Thistle proved that the treble would be no cakewalk.

The Celtic striker, who gained notoriety, as well as a box of the said Scottish confectionary item, when he was memorably pictured tucking into one on the bench at St Mirren Park last Friday, gobbled up an early opportunity to give Celtic the lead only for the home side to bite back immediately with an equaliser from Nigerian striker Edward Ofere.

Storm in a teacake or not, the former Hibs striker afterwards spoke for the first time since the incident, insisting he has been so keen to demonstrate his dietary discipline that he had even appeared on the Parkhead bench on Wednesday night with a peach.

Yesterday he scored one, turning away from Gary Warren, and firing in a trademark low left-footed drive which flicked off the Englishman on its route into Dean Brill's bottom corner.

"I didn't have one [a teacake] today," said Griffiths. "I was meant to run over to Stevie [Wright, the kit man] and take a biscuit out of his pocket but I was on the other side of the pitch so I didn't bother.

"I'm not going to do it any more - it was only if I scored today. It was just one of those things, I got caught on camera. I got a box sent from Tunnock's but I had to give it away because my body fat took a wee stretch. I just gave them to Stevie the kitman and he can have them all.

"I walked down the tunnel just before the game on Wednesday and when the manager looked at my hand I made sure I had a peach instead of a teacake," he added. "He was joking about it. I won't be doing it again."

This dress rehearsal for the Scottish Cup semi-final between these two teams next Sunday brought Ronny Deila back to the scene of one his mis-steps from earlier in the season, a 1-0 defeat here back in August when things weren't quite so rosy for Ronny.

The Norwegian had made no fewer than 10 changes on that occasion, for a match equidistant between the Champions League qualifying ties against Maribor. That had meant rare appearances for lesser spotted Celtic players such as Filip Twardzik, Eoghan O'Connell, Dylan McGeouch and Teemu Pukki but that was never likely to happen again yesterday.

Instead, there were just three alterations from the selection which saw the Parkhead side beyond Partick Thistle in midweek. Efe Ambrose came in for Adam Matthews, Scott Brown replaced Kris Commons, while Leigh Griffiths started up front instead of John Guidetti.

Inverness came into this on the back of a six-game winless run, but this was to be no phoney war. Played into the teeth of an icy gale, on a bobbly pitch, there was an edge to this game from the outset, and by the end seven players in all had been booked.

The goals at each end within the first five minutes only added to the furore. While Celtic must have fancied their chances of a sixth successive win when the Griffiths goal went in, Inverness are made of different stuff from most Premiership sides.

Exactly 109 seconds later, David Raven was latching on to a Marley Watkins lay-off and sticking a low ball across goal. Although Jason Denayer blocked Ryan Christie's effort, it broke to Ofere, and the Nigerian striker - presumably well acquainted with Deila from his time in Norwegian football - finished well.

The luckless Brill wouldn't last much longer, being helped off the pitch in agony after just 15 minutes of play with a dislocated knee after a collision with Gary Mackay-Steven, an injury which will keep him out of the Highlanders' first visit to Hampden for fully 11 years.

But his replacement Ryan Esson was worried rarely enough for Celtic to worry about. While he was forced to tip over headers from set pieces from first Efe Ambrose and Jason Denayer, and clutched a lot Stuart Armstrong drive, Inverness managed to frustrate Celtic sufficiently yesterday to offer them encouragement ahead of the re-match next Sunday.

Another source of frustration was referee Craig Thomson, who controversially booked skipper Scott Brown for diving in the box when there appeared to be contact with Raven.

"I think it was a disappointing performance," said Deila afterwards. "We had a lack of energy and we were a second too late in our challenges. We didn't get the tempo we wanted on the ball.

We didn't create the chances we wanted either. It [Sunday] is going to be a tough game. Inverness are the third team in the league. Few teams have done it before, winning the treble. You can see why it's difficult. This shows the game next Sunday is going to be even. We have to be really up for it."

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Inverness CT (4-4-1-1): Brill (Esson 20); Raven, Warren, Meekings, Shinnie; Williams (Vincent 85), Draper, Tansey, Watkins; Christie (Doran 85); Ofere.

Subs not used: Ross, Devine, Tremarco, Kink

Celtic (4-2-3-1) Gordon; Ambrose (Matthews 62), Van Dijk, Denayer, Izaguirre; Brown, Bitton; Mackay-Steven (Commons 62), Johansen, Armstrong; Griffiths (Guidetti 78).

Subs not used: Zaluska, Stokes, McGregor, Tierney

Bookings: Inverness CT: Meekings 21, Ofere 29, Draper 38, Watkins 45. Celtic: Van Dijk 32, Armstrong 46, Brown 67

Ref: C Thomson

Attendance: 6,059