Luke McCowan reacts like a Celtic veteran as he shows his true colours by refusing to single anyone out
Bleach Bhoy Luke McCowan insists the bright blond barnet might be around for a while – but Celtic will be back looking more like themselves ahead of a massive week.
The Hoops playmaker stood out against former club Dundee on Tuesday night and it wasn’t just down to his new peroxide hair do. McCowan notched the opener in the six-goal thriller on Tayside but there wasn’t many good vibrations from boss Brendan Rodgers as he wasn’t too happy at some of the uncharacteristic defending on show at Dens. The runaway Premiership pace-setters needed a stoppage time Arne Engels penalty to rescue a point but need to sharpen up with Kilmarnock up in the Scottish Cup this weekend before the massive Champions League showdown with Young Boys on Tuesday. McCowan admitted Celtic will need to brush up for the big ones – and it would be nice to have more highlights like his Dens goal.
He said: “I think the goal was down to getting the hair done, the ball just slipped off it! I was happy with that. That's what I need to do. I need to contribute with goals and assists. I'm just glad I did that. Is that the blonde hair back for good now? I don’t know. I like keeping people on their toes!
McCowan wasn’t too chuffed with the draw but he was delighted with his goal – even if he was never going to go over the top with his celebration. He said: "It was just heading the ball and probably forgetting (to celebrate). “I’m not used to heading it! Nah, I was never going to celebrate if I was going to score. I was at Dundee for four years so I was never going to run away in the corner and celebrate. I wanted to be respectful because they were good to me.
“Was there pressure going back? Playing for this club, you get the pressure in every single game. It was different. You're on the opposite side of the pitch, warming up and stuff like that, just wee things like that. It wasn’t much I thought about, it was just seeing old faces, which was nice. You're here to play a football match, I had to go and do that That was my mindset going there.”
McCowan got Celtic off to the perfect start in Dundee but the defence had a rare off day with Rodgers blasting the backline for going soft. The Hoops can’t afford any repeat with a couple of crunch clashes on the horizon. McCowan said: “One hundred percent. It is not typically us to not go and put a foothold on the match when you go a goal up early. It was not like us. It's just one of those things that happens.The clean sheet record is unreal. We need to keep looking at that and take confidence from it into the next match. We've proved in other games that the defensive unit is there.
“It's a defensive unit as a team. It's not just solely on the back four, the two centre-halves and Kasper. It's about everybody as a collective being together and defending. We know come the next game that we'll have to be better than what we were the other night. Now that match is done, that's what you need to do. You need to react well. “We've got another match coming in a few days, there’s no time to just dwell on it and think about previous stuff. It's about what comes next and pushing on through there.”
McCowan is itching to get back to business – and he’ll be on board for the Scottish Cup after sitting out the Premier Sports Cup triumph. He said: “I don't need to worry about being cup-tied or anything this time. It makes you hungry to do well in the other cup because I didn't get to play in the last one. So I'm looking forward to it. Again, you just need to go and make sure that your reaction is good now. “That'll be a whole team, as a collective, to do that.”
Celtic spilled points against determined Dundee but it didn’t do much damage given the chasm at the top of the league. But McCowan insisted the Hoops are not on the beach just yet. He said: “The points gap doesn't change the mindset – not one bit. That's the message throughout the whole week, before every game. It doesn't matter what the points gap is, you need to play like it's not there. If you thought about it, then you'd come off the gas and before you know it, there wouldn't be a point gap there. So you need to play like every match means everything, really.
“It doesn't matter if it's a cup match or a Champions League match. It's about getting yourself in the same mindset for every game. It sounds so robotic, but it's just how this works. You need to keep pushing yourself. You don't want nights like this, but it's how you react on Saturday.”
McCowan wasn’t surprised Engels kept his cool to rescue a point – or with the Hoops desire to dig out a result. He said: “Aye, it was never in doubt. He practices them a lot and he's got a nice calm head on him, so I knew he was going to slot it. I practice them with him in training but come the big games, he’s the boy who steps up and does it. He doesn’t even miss them in training – never. That's the kind of resilience that we need to show every game. The boys do that incredibly. We've shown that through this year, but we just need to keep that kind of mindset going and don't let it drop, especially in tough games when you're coming away from home, that's when the mentality needs to be at its best. We know that for next time.”
