RONNY DEILA is looking forward to the Premiership post-split fixture list being announced, grateful, if not relieved, he will not have to take his Bhoys back up the A9 to Inverness.

Maybe it's got something to do with the average speed cameras slowing down their progress to the title.

But, certainly, trips to the Highland capital have provided a few bumps in the road in their drive for a fourth-straight league championship.

The 1-0 defeat at the start of the season was mitigated against because it was the meat in the sandwich between Celtic's Champions League play-off ties against NK Maribor.

Deila now concedes the 10 changes he made from the side which had gained a 2-2 draw in the first leg in Slovenia was asking too much of a squad which was still in its embryonic stage.

There was no such mass switch at the weekend, though Kris Commons was given a rest for the 1-1 draw. The other changes were tactical but, again, Celtic could not bring three points back down the road with them.

There are always many factors at play when the Hoops hit Inverness, not least this time the fact Caley Thistle are fighting for third spot in the table and the Europa League place that goes with it.

Quite what some of the Continent's elite would make of the Caledonian Stadium, perched on the shores of the Moray Firth, is anyone's guess.

But at least they can be assured of a warm Highland welcome - unlike the call-to-arms which any visit by Celtic appears to induce.

It must all seem a bit, well, foreign to Deila. Fortunately, the Norwegian does not need to worry about trying to gain his first-ever win in Inverness - Tannadice is the only other Premiership ground he has failed to find success - until next season.

However, the Hoops boss does have to contend with the fact John Hughes' side still represent a major obstacle to be overcome in their pursuit of a clean sweep of domestic trophies.

Most immediately, Caley Thistle will provide the opposition in this Sunday's William Hill Scottish Cup semi-final at Hampden.

Inverness will also, of course, make another trip to Glasgow to play Celtic at Parkhead in the run-in to the league campaign.

Solace for Deila comes from knowing that, in both these games, the playing surfaces and general conditions will be much more conducive to his kind of football.

The downside is that, for this weekend's cup-tie, he will be without the suspended Anthony Stokes and the cup-tied Gary Mackay-Steven and Stuart Armstrong.

Deila also wanted to go into this semi-final having won - and in style - on Saturday, to lay down a marker to Inverness and ensure Hughes and his players travelled south more in trepidation than expectation.

In the event, Celtic neither won, nor played well. Indeed, they got embroiled in yet another scrap which started so well, with Leigh Griffiths scoring inside three minutes.

But the kind of defensive frailty which has been absent from their play in recent months returned to allow Edward Ofere to equalise 109 seconds later.

The tall Nigerian's physical style and pressing - ably assisted by his team-mates - of the Hoops back line was a feature of Hughes' game plan, and one he will undoubtedly adopt again at Hampden.

However, on a pitch which is immeasurably better than the one at the Caledonian Stadium - Griffiths described it as one of the worst he had experienced this season - and without the blustery wind blowing, such an approach could backfire on Inverness.

Celtic will be able to pick a better pass, control the ball more easily, and utilise the wide open spaces which Hampden offers.

Certainly, while Deila was disappointed with his team's performance at the weekend, it is not considered any reason to spend the week fretting about the semi-final, or searching for a new game plan.

The delay caused when keeper Dean Brill had to be removed from the action after 20 minutes with a serious knee injury after Mackay-Steven had closed him down while clearing, knocked the early momentum out of Saturday's game.

But, even allowing for this, Deila accepts his side should have done better, and predicted they will when the teams meet again on Sunday.

"It's going to be a different game in the semi-final," said the Hoops boss, news which will be welcomed by the Celtic fans who travelled north to be given little to shout about on Saturday.

"A Hampden, there are going to be more spaces, and it is going to be easier to get the ball moving quicker.

"But, again, Inverness showed they are a good team, and we need to step up compared to how we played on Saturday."

Deila is aware that, in his position as manager of the top club in the country, any attempt to analyse and explain why his side has not played as well as they should runs the risk of being construed as some kind of excuse-making.

Even when his counterpart, Hughes, admits conditions were against good football, it can fall on deaf ears and not be accepted as defence of the Celtic manager's view.

So, Deila has got smarter when reviewing what happened and why, quickly moving the focus of the conversation to what they can control, not what they can't.

The question of how the wind spoiled Saturday's game was a case in point.

"I wasn't out there, so I can't say for sure how much it affected the game," he countered.

But he quickly added: "The conditions are not perfect. We know that, so we have to play to the conditions. On Saturday, we played too much in front of Inverness, instead of getting in behind them. That is something we have to work on."

Work which will be interrupted while Deila prepares his side for Wednesday's Premiership game against Kilmarnock.

They now need another 14 points to be sure of lifting the title ... the good news is they will not be required to go to the Highlands to collect any of them.