THE nearest Luke McCowan came to making his Europa League debut was a place among the stand-by squad in Celtic’s 1-1 draw with Red Star Belgrade in the competition opener in the Serbian capital last midweek.
The £1million deadline day arrival from Dundee in August 2024 is hoping to rectify the situation with an outing against Sporting Braga at Parkhead on Thursday evening.
The Austrians of Sturm Graz are due to provide the opposition under the lights in the east end of Glasgow three weeks later and McCowan is determined to play his part in Brendan Rodgers’ side’s target of maximum points from two home fixtures to add to the one earned in Belgrade.
JOY BHOYS…Luke McCowan and James Forrest celebrate another Celtic goal.
The 27-year-old all-action midfielder, who made his 50th Hoops appearance in the home scoreless stalemate with Hibs at the weekend, believes the team should have been planning for a second successive win in the tournament against the Portuguese outfit in three days’ time.
McCowan said: “The home games are a great opportunity for us, we know that. If we were being hard on ourselves, we probably had the game there against Red Star.
“It was another great opportunity for us away from home.
“But when it comes to home games, we need to put on real top-level performances to go and get the victories.
“You want to push on and I want to try and play as many minutes as I can in that competition.
“So, I am looking forward to Thursday and the challenge of top European sides coming to Parkhead.”
On the homefront, McCowan, just as his skipper Callum McGregor had said in the CQN report yesterday, insisted he was not overly worried that Hearts had gone two points ahead at the top of the Premiership after only six games.
FOUR HE’S A JOLLY GOOD FELLOW…Luke McCowan makes it 4-0 in the League Cup win over Partick Thistle at Firhill.
While the champions toiled to make the breakthrough against David Gray’s well-drilled Easter Road outfit in Glasgow, Derek McInnes’ side were sticking three behind former Celtic keeper Scott Bain on their way to a 3-0 triumph over Falkirk at Tynecastle.
McCowan, speaking to the Daily Record, continued: “We’re not eyeballing Hearts and worrying about them or anything like that. It’s more worrying about ourselves.
“It’s making sure that we’re at it. That’s always been the way Celtic play. It’s about we come first and we make sure that we’re doing the things that we’re good at throughout the season.
“If we keep up what we’re doing, it won’t matter what Hearts do. It’s about the levels of performance Celtic put in.
“It’s the same every season, isn’t it? There’s always a team that pushes us.
PULLING POWER…a Partick Thistle player gets shirty with Luke McCowan.
“It’s always the question. Last year it was Aberdeen, they started like a house on fire. But it’s so early with so many games to play.
“If we keep that performance level that we did on Saturday, we’ll come away with the three points more often than not.”
“It’s a level of expectation at this club. You need to put that pressure on yourself and you need to accept that pressure of league champions.
“You need to go and show why you won the league before. But knowing that winning it the year before means absolutely nothing.
“It’s about pushing on and pushing on throughout the full season.”
