Billy McKay secures victory with the only goal as Neil Lennon's Celtic side's European hangover strikes again Instead, they were battered 5-1 at home by Motherwell, but Terry Butcher refused to allow his players to retreat into their shells and they proved willing to take the game to Celtic whenever possible, which turned out to be rather too frequently for Lennon or the home support in the crowd. Mind you, had Celtic taken the two outstanding chances they contrived as the interval approached, they would have gone into the break in comfort. The first was provided by Hooper for Commons, on the angle of the six yard box, but the midfielder drove it straight into the front rows of the stand behind Antonio Reguero's goal. Mikael Lustig then squandered an identical opening - this time supplied by Kayal - with the slight difference that his attempt found the side netting. If the Hoops fans anticipated that the interval would be used to transformative effect, they were proved correct, but the team that found its edge was Caley Thistle, who began to break menacingly with ominous regularity. Midway through the second half the Highlanders struck gold. Philip Roberts forced the opening with a thrust into the box where he executed a drag back that left two opponents on their backs before he struck a pass towards the back post where McKay tapped home unopposed - there was a suspicion of offside - to the fury of the Celtic faithful. Lennon threw on Brown, Lassad and Paddy McCourt in an attempt to swing his side's fortunes and Celtic proceeded to batter at the Inverness door, with Reguero forced to claw a Samaras header away from below his crossbar. Yet the nearest thing to another goal fell again to McKay who, with Celtic desperately thin at the back, crashed a drive off the crossbar. Even then, Caley Thistle should have scored but Aaron Doran lingered too long with his shot from the rebound and Ambrose was able to block on the line. Hibernian, front runners earlier in the month, would have gone top had they beaten Aberdeen at home, but instead the Dons closed to within a point with a victory ensured when ex-Celt Nial McGinn netted the only goal of the game to put the Pittodrie side within a point of the champions. Elsewhere, the fixture between Motherwell and Hearts ended in a goalless stalemate at Fir Park. There was a paucity of chances though one of the exceptions to the rule saw Jamie MacDonald - who had earlier kept out a header from Michael Higdon - make a fine diving save to block another goalbound effort from the striker. There was an outstanding opportunity for Hearts to win it in injury time when Ryan McGowan met a corner kick from Arvydas Novikovas in front of goal with a header that he pushed wide. Two Tayside teams - Dundee United and St Johnstone - won 2-1 away at Ross County and Kilmarnock respectively - while St Mirren struck a big blow in the relegation struggle with a 3-1 victory at home to Dundee.