Scottish Cup win at St Mirren prepares Celtic for Juventus

Celtic boss Neil Lennon feels the Scottish Cup win over St Mirren is a huge mental boost for his players ahead of Wednesday's Juventus clash.

His side face the Italians in the second leg of the Champions League last 16 round, trailing 3-0.

"Psychologically, today will give them a big lift going into this game and it's very much one to look forward to," Lennon told BBC Radio Scotland.

"To go there and win would be a tremendous way to end to the campaign."

And Lennon added: "We want to make it look like the score-line at Celtic Park was a little bit flattering to Juventus.

"We felt there wasn't that much between the teams although they did have a lot of class in their side.

"We'd like to go, compete and try and win the tie."

At St Mirren Park in this Scottish Cup quarter-final match, all the goals were scored by the 21st minute.

Celtic captain Joe Ledley's header gave them the lead after five minutes after James Forrest crossed from the right.

But St Mirren struck back through Esmael Goncalves, whose fifth goal of the season followed a blunder by Emilio Izaguirre.

However, Anthony Stokes netted at the back-post from another Forrest delivery to score what turned out to be the winner.

"There was a lot riding on the game for both sides but I'm delighted because that's another semi-final we've got to look forward to," Lennon said.

"It keeps the season competitive now until at least April.

"We gifted them a goal, they didn't have to work for it.

"Defensively we got better as the game went on. You know you have to withstand a bit of pressure towards the end but we dealt with that all right."

The Celtic manager looked sharp in a suit at the sidelines throughout the game.

"My tracksuit's looking a wee bit tatty at the minute so I just fancied a change today," added Lennon.

St Mirren manager Danny Lennon was understandably disappointed at being knocked out of the competition, but felt his side gave a decent account of themselves.

"Once again we've run them very close," he said.

"Disappointed in the way we lost the second goal - it was sloppy play.

"They're absolutely terrific going forward and you've got to know when to hit them and you've got to do it at pace.

"That's one competition that we're out of now and we've got a very important final to look forward to on the 17 March."