John Hartson proved his goal-scoring touch has returned with another SPL double, in a game which threatened to be ruined as a spectacle when Caley's Juanjo saw red in 18 minutes after a clash with Neil Lennon.

Home fans were understandably upset that Juanjo was red-carded when both players seemed at fault in a relatively minor exchange off-the-ball. The Caley player was sent off on the say-so of the fourth official in a harsh decision.

Celtic soon took the lead with an excellent Hartson far post header following a rare pinpoint cross by Agathe. But Caley pulled back to equalise with a controversial penalty when Balde was judged wrongly to have handled just before half-time.

With Caley defending in depth and seeking to frustrate Celtic, the game threatened to become dull. However with relentless Celtic possession the ref gave another penalty when an Inverness defender handled a Wallace cross ball.

Petrov's spot-kick was too straight and bundled away by Caley keeper Mark Brown. But half a minute later from a resulting corner, Petrov made up for his error with a stunning 25-yard volley to make the score 2-1.

Wallace's corner passed the whole penalty area to reach Petrov standing just outside. The Bulgarian captain took one touch before siplaying great technique to smash the ball back across into the far corner, giving Brown no chance.

A great goal which will help Stilian forget his woeful penalty. Normal penalty-taker Chris Sutton is off with a hamstring injury, but perhaps Thompson or Camara should have taken the spot-kick.

Caley were ragged now and when Brown palmed out a cross-ball, Hartson was there to secure the points by stabbing home from 8 yards.

Earlier Camara had hit the crossbar, having shown a lot of promise without managing to make decisive moves. It is clear that he could be an excellent strike partner for Hartson or Sutton but Celtic need plenty of options with the demands of European football fast coming.

There was a scare in the dying minutes when Stanislav Varga was taken off nursing a thigh injury after a Caley Thistle fell heavily on the back of Varga's left leg after a foul. Hopefully the injury is simply bruising.

All in all this was a scrappy SPL encounter marred by the unfortunate sending off of Juanjo. Either both players should have got yellows or a simple talking-to. The Caley penalty seemed like an attempt by the officials to "even up the score".

For Celtic, some comfort that the team has maintained its 100% record after the first three games, but the team is still not firing on all cylinders as Martin O'Neill acknowledged afterwards.

Man of the match: John Hartson.

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