Stuart Kettlewell has blasted the 'despicable' scenes outside Celtic Park as he admitted it spoiled his side's day after the victory.
Ross Coutny ran out 2-0 winners in the Betfred Cup and were then caught in the crossfire as angry fans gathered outside Celtic Park to vent their anger at Neil Lennon and the club.
It was the first time in 36 domestic cup games Celtic lost and it added to a poor run of form that has seen the Hoops win just two of their last 10 games.
Angry supporters want Lennon to walk away from the manager's job or be sacked while the club are standing firm in their backing of the Northern Irishman.
And Kettlewell backed Lennon and admitted he was disappointed by what he saw outside.
He said: "We did have to get a police escort out of Parkhead and on to the motorway.
"The police to my mind dealt with the situation very well, they were excellent.
"It is was absolutely despicable. The whole situation for me soured a brilliant day for our club. It was a great day for our club.
"We understand what it means to Celtic and how despondent their fans would be and their players and officials would be.
"It is football, we all know that that happens but you have to realise we are in the middle of a global pandemic here and some of the scenes I see sitting on the bus, watching police fighting and trying their damndest to stop guys breaking the perimeter barriers they set out was just despicable.
"If we look at the bigger picture outside football, we have police wrestling with people who potentially could have the virus and they are putting themselves in the front line to try to contain a situation.
"What Neil Lennon has done for Celtic as a player, a captain and manager, I certainly think he deserves a helluva more respect than what he and his players got on Sunday.
"I am not a Celtic official, I am not a Celtic supporter, Ross County is obviously my concern but I can only speak through sitting in that car park waiting to get away from Parkhead and it's not scenes any of us want to see in Scottish football.
"Hopefully it is an isolated situation we don't see again and people take heed that it is totally unacceptable."
