JUBILANT Ross County manager Stuart Kettlewell spared a thought for opposite number Neil Lennon in the midst of his own celebrations at Celtic Park, describing the Celtic manager as having ‘class’.

Kettlewell was delighted to relieve the pressure on his own shoulders as his team halted a poor run of results by pulling off a major shock to progress to the last eight of the Betfred Cup.

But he was quick to defend under-fire Lennon in what was a classy move of his own.

“Neil Lennon is a guy I have a huge amount of respect for,” Kettlewell said.

“You speak about conducting yourself with class, and about how people treat you as a manager. “Sometimes people can look at you and doubt you but I know from the dealings I’ve had with Neil he has been nothing but class. He has offered up a few words of wisdom for me.

“I think he has done an absolutely brilliant job with this football club. I know if I am under a bit of pressure with bad results then that is magnified at a club like Celtic.

“I think the guy has done a terrific job and I have so much respect for him.”

Kettlewell says that the 2-0 win is up there with any of the cup shocks that County have pulled off over the years, and he was especially delighted with the reaction of his players after a desperately disappointing defeat to 10-man Kilmarnock last week.

“It's a massive result four our football club,” he said.

“But I was exceptionally critical off the back of last weekend so in simple terms, I was looking for a reaction, and I got that in spade loads. Every single player stood up the plate.

"We had a game plan executed it very, very well and got a brilliant result at the end of it.

“We know the run Celtic have been on, we know how good they have been in cup competitions, domestically they have been sensational over the last number of years, so it was a mammoth task for us.

“But our club has a decent history in the last decade or so of causing an upset and that ranks right up there with the best of them.”