Celtic manager Neil Lennon praised his side for the way they approached today's game against Hearts following their Champions League exit.

"That's the best performance I've had in my time as manager," he said.

"You always look for more but in terms of Utopia that's as good as it gets. That's the way we want them to play. It was everything I could have asked for.

"I wanted a reaction (from the players) from Tuesday night. There is no shame in going out of the Champions League, we were competing at the highest level. They've put a marker down now for the rest of the season."

Hearts manager Gary Locke, whose side a still battling against a 10-point deduction for going into administration, said his young side would cope with the heavy cup defeat.

With 14 outfield players on the books at Tynecastle with an average age of 19, Locke knows his side face a tough season.

"Celtic have got world-class players. If you give them time on the ball they will hurt you," said Locke.

"We've got to do better in as much as trying to get closer to people and stopping other teams from playing.

"With having a young team one of the things we knew is we were going to be on the end of a result like that."

Locke feels his players will respond in the right way.

He said: "We have got to learn from it, we have got to pick ourselves up. We can't feel sorry for ourselves.

"I can only apologise to the supporters because they did not deserve that but we are where we are. The one thing we can't do is feel sorry for ourselves."

Meanwhile Celtic midfielder Kris Commons felt the 7-0 thrashing of Hearts in the William Hill Scottish Cup was the right response after crashing out of the Champions League in midweek.

Commons hit a hat-trick in the emphatic win at Tynecastle and set his sights on retaining the cup as part of a double with the league title.

Commons said: "It was good to come back with a response after the disappointment of getting knocked out of the Champions League. It's onwards and upwards now and hopefully we can retain this cup.

"There is pressure on Celtic every time we play, we are expected to win and we are expected to win well. I think when we put our minds to it like we did today we are a match for anyone, not just in Scotland," Commons added on BBC Scotland.

Celtic captain Scott Brown also scored twice and praised his team-mates, with Joe Ledley and Mikael Lustig getting the other goals.

"The first half was probably as well as we have played all season," said Brown.

Following a 3-0 defeat to AC Milan at Parkhead on Tuesday, Celtic were left without even the consolation of a place in the Europa League.

A defiant Brown said of his side's response: "It was huge but we had faith in ourselves. We know how good we are."