NEIL Lennon has called on his Celtic players to channel their anger at their Europa League exit - and take a big step towards the quadruple treble with a William Hill Scottish Cup quarter-final win over St Johnstone tomorrow.

Scott Brown and his team mates suffered a catastrophic late collapse against Copenhagen in the second leg of the last 32 double header at Parkhead on Thursday night to crash out of Europe.

But Lennon, whose side conceded two goals in the final five minutes after levelling through an Odsonne Edouard penalty, wants them to use the pain of the agonising defeat as motivation at McDiarmid Park.

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"I’m hoping I get a reaction from our players after Thursday night and I’m sure I will,” he said. “I hope they’re angry. When they play angry they can be very good.

“They had Friday off and now they need to get their minds refocused on trying to retain the Scottish Cup. But I’m looking for a reaction, that’s for sure.

“I’m still bitterly disappointed to have gone out on Thursday, but we have to get over that because we only have ourselves to blame. We were in control of that game and gave the impetus away through our own fault. It was just crazy.”

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Meanwhile, Lennon revealed he was upset that a second-half Callum McGregor goal at a Mohammed Elyounoussi corner – netted when the scoreline was still 0-0 - was disallowed by Portuguese referee Artur Dias.

The match official ruled that Christopher Jullien had barged over Copenhagen keeper Karl-Johan Johnsson before McGregor struck.

“I wondered why it wasn’t allowed even at the time,” he said. “That would have put us in the ascendency and it was a great finish from Callum so I was very disappointed with that decision. The ball had already gone past their goalkeeper and been headed away when he went down.

“We then got a definite penalty and I was thinking ‘great we’ve got what we deserved’. That came after making a mistake for the first goal.”

But Lennon, whose side allowed Pep Biel and Dame N’Doye to score after Edouard had scored a spot kick, admitted that Celtic, who had beaten Lazio home and away in the group stages and topped their section, didn’t merit a place in the last 16 alongside Rangers.

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He said: “If we couldn’t win in the 90 minutes we should have been taking it to extra-time, but our game-management after that was really poor.

“We needed to calm down, but I was trying to say that to them for the whole of the second-half. We got too anxious and started chasing the game too much. We just needed to manage the game after scoring the penalty and be composed but we did the exact opposite.

“We looked leggy late on too, but I think that’s psychological, I really do. The third goal is academic after the second goal which was the ice-breaker.

“We created some good chances, but just lacked punch in the first-half. I was actually quite pleased with the first-half performance. Copenhagen defended well and their goalkeeper made some good saves.

"We were forcing the game the way I wanted them to and I said to them at half-time that if they could just keep a clean sheet they were through. But then we made a glaring error before shooting ourselves in the foot at the end. I just didn’t see that coming.”

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Lennon added: “It’s been a good Euro campaign. I think we’ve made really good strides. That’s the most disappointing aspect of going out, when you think of the calibre of teams we’ve beaten.

“But when you give away goals the way we did on Thursday then it’s tough. I just didn’t think Copenhagen deserved anything out of the game, but we were punished by mistakes of our own making.

“But we have to channel this defeat now. It’s my job to make sure we do that. I have a duty of care to these players too because they have been magnificent for me. They have given me everything.”