Neil Lennon praised his players as the Scottish Cup holders easily overcame a potential banana skin to book their place in the quarter-finals with a 2-0 win away to Inverness Caledonian Thistle.

Inverness have form against Celtic in the Scottish Cup having famously knocked the Hoops out of the competition in 2000 when they were a First Division side, a feat they repeated in 2003.

Terry Butcher's side also ended Celtic's title hopes last season with a 3-2 win at the Caledonian Stadium in May that allowed Rangers to clinch their third title in a row.

However, there was to be no slip ups for the league leaders this time as Lennon's side swept Inverness aside with a comfortable victory thanks to a Georgios Samaras strike and a Scott Brown penalty.

It was Celtic's 15th win in a row - a run which has seen them reclaim top spot in the SPL and a place in the League Cup final against Kilmarnock - and they could go four points clear at the top of the SPL with a win against Hearts on Wednesday.

And the Celtic manager, who made four changes for the game against Inverness, said he was happy with the strength of his squad as they remain on track for a domestic treble.

"People sometimes question what I do but the players are giving me the results and I've got a good squad. I don't want to be too clever with it but I want to keep the players as fresh as I can," Lennon said.

"The players who came in against Inverness were fantastic allied to the boys who have already being doing the hard work for the last three months so I couldn't be more happy with them.

"I can't praise the players highly enough. They played a difficult game against difficult opposition in difficult conditions and they came through it with flying colours.

"It's never comfortable against Inverness but in terms of performance it's as good as we've played here in a long time.

"It's the next biggest trophy in Scotland after the league and the players are proud to be the holders of that. I think they gained a lot of satisfaction in winning it last year and they know it is days like this that get them there.

"I don't know what the quarter-final draw will bring but they are totally focussed.

"We will take it one game at a time. It's the oldest cliche in football but we have another huge game coming up on Wednesday against Hearts and we are not looking any further than that."

Celtic will be joined in the draw for the quarter-finals by last year's beaten finalists Motherwell who routed First Division Morton 6-0 at Fir Park and Hibernian who defeated fellow SPL side Kilmarnock 1-0 at Eater Road.

Aberdeen and Queen of the South will have to do it again after their tie at Pittodrie ended in a 1-1 draw.

Richard Brittain missed a last minute penalty for First Division league leaders Ross County as they were held to a 1-1 draw by SPL side St Mirren.

Rangers take on Dundee United in their fifth round match at Ibrox on Sunday while Hearts are at home to St Johnstone.