O'Neill admits blame as Inverness win again

Martin O'Neill insisted that the blame for Celtic's humiliating Scottish Cup defeat to Inverness Caledonian Thistle last night lay on his shoulders.

The Celtic manager watched his team – conquerors of Liverpool in Europe only four days previously – dumped out of the competition by the First Division side for the second time in four seasons. O'Neill made eight changes from the side which triumphed at Anfield last Thursday and claimed responsibility for the embarrassment at the Caledonian Stadium, where Dennis Wyness grabbed the only goal of the game late in the first half.

The previous defeat at Parkhead 2000 cost John Barnes his job as Celtic manager, and inspired the newspaper headline "Super Caley Go Ballistic Celtic Are Atrocious." O'Neill is unlikely to suffer the same fate as the former Liverpool player, but he admitted: "It's totally and absolutely my responsibility, no doubt about it. I'm not sure I wanted to take credit for Thursday. It was a superb all-round performance from them in midweek. But this is my responsibility and always will be."

The Inverness manager John Robertson, the former Hearts and Scotland striker, attributed his side's victory over Celtic to sheer hard work.

Robertson – whose team will now face Falkirk or Dundee in the semi-finals next month – said: "It was an unbelievable performance, the players did all they could do. They worked so hard, the players were phenomenal. I'm so happy for everybody at the club."

The Caley goalkeeper Mark Brown, who turned in a man-of-the-match performance to keep a clean sheet against Henrik Larsson, John Hartson and company, added: "We had to play at our peak. Everybody just gave it their all and we just knew we had to work hard and take our own chances. They had a lot of possession. I'm just delighted with the result."

The Cup holders, Rangers, were held to a 1-1 draw away to a spirited Dunfermline Athletic side earlier in the day and will replay at Ibrox on 9 April, with the winners meeting Motherwell in the last four.