Luke McCowan hails impact of mindset coach after goal on full Celtic debut

Luke McCowan revealed his “mindset coach” was helping him make an impact in his early days at Celtic.

The midfielder marked his first start with his second goal for the club as Celtic won 3-0 at Motherwell on Sunday.

The former Ayr and Dundee player nutmegged a defender and drilled home the opening goal at Fir Park as he took his full debut in his stride days after coming off the bench to help Celtic get a Champions League point at Atalanta.

“You’ve got to stay calm,” he said. “It’s something I want to be doing. It’s not as if I’ve won the lottery to get a start. You’ve got to work hard to get that.

“I was saying that to my mindset coach the other day, it was just a case of being frustrated about not playing and it means you’re doing something well. And I was.

“And then to get the nod to start shows the manager’s got a bit of trust in me and I need to go and prove I deserve a start and I think I’ve done well enough to do that.

“It went about as smoothly as I could have hoped. A 3-0 victory. It’s good to just be out there and helping the team get the three points and having an impact on the game.”

McCowan has been working with his mindset coach since his Dundee days.

“I worked with him for maybe six months before I came here, and I knew when I came here that I’m going to need to keep him, because it’s going to be a different kind of a situation,” he said.

“Me and him speak all the time and week in, week out we’re talking. It’s just kind of like having a conversation with your dad or your uncle, but a lot more professional about it and he’s been really good for me.

“I’ve worked hard to get here, I’ve been told by numerous people at the club that once you’re here it’s about showing you deserve to be here and I’m not going to get all excited.

“Obviously when you come here as a fan, everybody can hype it up and make it a lot more than what it is, but I’ve got to go there and perform, it’s about getting three points and doing that game by game.

“It’s like any other promotion in a job isn’t it? You get excited when you first get there, but as soon as you’re there you can’t just put the tools down and stop doing it. You need to go and graft away and put the hard work in, get myself fitter, get myself in the team and make impacts, not just run about and make a couple of passes.

“It’s about scoring goals and getting assists, so I need to try and do that.”

With skipper Callum McGregor still a doubt with a hip strain, McCowan could come up against his former team-mates when Dundee visit Celtic Park on Wednesday night.

“Cannot wait,” the 26-year-old said. “Obviously off the back of that (game) as well, it’ll be nice hopefully.

“We know it’s going to be a hard game as always, but we’re looking forward to it and as soon as the game finished there we knew our eyes were on Wednesday and it’s just game by game now.”