GORDON’S SEMI-FINAL WARNING

CRAIG GORDON believes Celtic will have to give absolutely everything against Inverness Caley Thistle in the Scottish Cup semi-final at Hampden on Sunday to keep their treble dream alive.

The Hoops shotstopper made his first appearance against the Highlanders in the 1-1 stalemate after sitting out the previous two encounters, a 1-0 loss in Inverness and a 1-0 win in Glasgow.

He said: “It’s a good little reminder that we are in for a big fight at the weekend. Inverness are a good team. They are big and physical – but they can also pass the ball.

“They were up for it and they put us under a bit of pressure. They’ve got a little bit of everything about them and, on any given day, they are more than capable of winning a game.

“They pressed us high and they will try to do that again at Hampden. Hopefully, we will learn from this and play better.

“But the one thing we know for sure is that we will be in for a battle this weekend.’

The Hoops found it tough to play on a bumpy surface at the Tulloch Caledonian Stadium, but Gordon reckons the recently re-laid turf at Hampden will benefit John Hughes’ side just as much as the treble-chasers.

He said: “It will be a different venue on a different pitch, but that won’t have any bearing. The pitch at Hampden will help us, but it will be good for Inverness as well because they like to pass the ball about.

“Both sides were aggressive on Saturday in trying to press, there was nothing nasty about it. Everyone was just trying to get one over their direct opponent ahead of the semi-final and neither team wanted to lose ahead of the Cup-tie.

“We all know this is a big one, but we’ve also got a league match against Kilmarnock at home on Wednesday night sandwiched right in the middle of these two Inverness games.

“We need to keep picking up points. If we can win against Kilmarnock, we can go into the semi-final high on confidence and looking to beat Caley Thistle.”