“Quite late is an understatement, I think! Five minutes to go,” Luke McCowan | OneFootball

Luke McCowan spoke to Sky Sports ahead of tonight’s Dens Park clash between Dundee and Celtic…

Luke McCowan. Ross County v Celtic in Dingwall. Photo Vagelis Georgariou

Luke McCowan spent three years at The Dark Blues making 128 appearances, scoring on 28 occasions and would eventually go onto become Tony Docherty’s skipper before making the move to his boyhood club on the final day of the summer transfer window.

The 27 year-old played the entire duration of Celtic’s comfortable 2-0 victory over his former employers at Celtic Park in late October. But, returning to Dens Park will be a strange feeling for the midfield playmaker as McCowan and his teammates aim to extend the significant gap at the top of the Scottish Premiership table to 18 points.

Ross County v Celtic in Dingwall. Photo Vagelis Georgariou

Speaking to Sky Sports, McCowan explained he is looking forward to going back to Dens Park and see a few familiar faces.

Q: It was quite late on deadline day [the transfer], did you get the chance to say goodbye? How did that day pan out?

Luke McCowan: “Quite late is an understatement, I think! Five minutes to go! No, I didn’t, but when we played them at home earlier on in the season, I got to say goodbye. But, it will be nice to see a few people who actually work at the ground, so I’m looking forward to it.”

Q: I know you’ve had loads of big moments that sets in how big a move you’ve made, but I wonder if going back they’ll be another one of them just to realise how quickly and how differently things have changed for you?

Luke McCowan: “Yeah, I think so. Even just warming up on the other side of the pitch will be something that I will probably notice that will be different. But, it will just be nice to go back into somewhere I was for three-and-a-half/four years and it will just be different going back and this time I want to beat them, and take points off them rather than being nice. So, full focus for me is on the game and enjoying it.”

Luke McCowan celebrates scoring the second goal during the Celtic v Ross County Scottish Premiership match at Celtic Park on Saturday November 30, 2024. Photo Steve Welsh

Q: Manager not being pestering you for inside information?

Luke McCowan: “No, been pestering me about my hair, instead!”

Q: How are you enjoying things recently, playing a couple of games from the start, and then on the bench, but coming on and scoring at the weekend, how are you finding it all?

Luke McCowan: “Amazing! That’s what comes when you’ve got so many good players. You just need to know what your role is within the team and go exploit it. Luckily, I’ve been doing that, and I need to keep doing that. Throughout the season you’re going to be called upon from the start, you might be called upon from the bench but every day in training you’re pushing each other, you’re strengthening each other.”

Luke McCowan at Rugby Park. Photo Vagelis Georgariou for The Celtic Star.

Q: How are you finding that psychological challenge of now leading from the front and having such a big gap, you are relatively new into this?

Luke McCowan: “It’s one of those ones that I’m not used to it. I’m just going off how the boys are feeling, and they treat no game differently regardless of what the points gap is. It’s about how important each game is, what performance levels are needed, and as you say, I’m new to being at this side of the table. I’m just watching these guys and learning from them.”

Q: Is that what is key to it then, the fact that some people have done this before, is it maybe about that competition for places we have spoken about, what is the key to keeping feet to the floor when you’ve got that gap?

Luke McCowan: “It’s probably you realise that it’s not even there. You just want to keep working hard each day, pushing each other each day so that the performance levels are the same in each game. I just need to keep looking at how Cal [McGregor] handles it, [James] Forrest, I always mention those guys names because I am quite close to them here, but they’ve been amazing for me, and we just need to keep plauding along and take each game as it comes.”

Conor Spence

Celtic Pools – Join the Weekly Lottery and support the Celtic Academy. Why not join Celtic Pools for £1 a week with the chance to win up to £25k?

More Stories / Latest News

“Quite late is an understatement, I think! Five minutes to go,” Luke McCowan

Jan 14 2025, 8:39

Stan Collymore’s ringing endorsement of Celtic transfer target

Jan 13 2025, 22:16

Irish ‘wonderkid’ visits Glasgow as Celtic face Spurs transfer competition

Jan 13 2025, 20:19