JOHN HUGHES lavished praise on his triumphant Inverness Caley heroes as they booked their place in the club's first-ever Scottish Cup final.

A goal down at the break, Caley roared back in the second half to take the lead twice in a pulsating encounter with Celtic.

While the strikes from Greg Tansey, Edward Ofere and David Raven will be what the record books show as being the decisive moments in the semi-final, they only tell part of the story from a pulsating match.

Crucially, Inverness' win hinged on two decisions by Steven McLean. The first was not to award a penalty and a red card just before the break as Josh Meekings handled in the penalty area, and the second was to dismiss Craig Gordon in an incident which handed Inverness a spot-kick and a way back into the match.

It provided a springboard for the Highlanders to kick on while Celtic struggled to recover.

Hughes admitted the dismissal was pivotal, but refused to take any credit away from his own players. He said: "The sending off changed the game in Inverness' favour, but as I said before the game, what these boys have done for me since I came to the club, they deserve that. I'm absolutely delighted to be there. Well done to the boys and supporters.

"We have been going 21 years, a small provincial club up in the Highlands. We lost a real inspirational skipper in Richie Foran, he has been out all season with injury, we had to sell our top goalscorer Billy Mckay in January and we had to go again."

The one downside for Caley was the booking for defender Gary Warren, which rules him out of the final, after suspension also cost him a place in last season's Scottish League Cup final defeat to Aberdeen at Parkhead.

Hughes said: "That is a rule I would look at. To deny someone the opportunity to play in a cup final, especially the Scottish Cup final with the history of it, that rankles with me.

"If it is a straight red in the semi-final, by all means, you don't play, but if it is two bookings that rules you out, you need to look at that.

"Gary is an absolute gentleman, he has come in to the game late and gives you everything he has got. I am gutted for him."

The former Falkirk boss had considered taking goal hero Raven off before he popped up with the late winner which was only his second goal for Inverness and third in his career.

He said: "Coming up to extra time he was sitting on the grass and I pulled him up by the scruff of the net and said, 'don't show any weakness'.

"Sitting down is weakness for me. You stand up. And I have to be honest, before he scored the goal I was looking to change it.

"I was going to put Aaron Doran in at right-back, but more as a winger so he could take the left-back on. Thankfully I didn't do that and David came up with the goal."

A tearful Raven, who picked the perfect time to score his first goal since February, 2014, added: "I don't know really, a bit emotional to be honest, got tears in my eyes.

"I thought it was just our day and to score the winning goal is a dream come true. In a cup semi-final against Celtic, I can't believe it.

"It was topsy-turvy and it could have gone either way."