The commentator who rattles around Celtic star's head as one-word zinger sets Champions League dreams alight


Celtic daft Luke McCowan will turn childhood dreams of performing on the Champions League stage into a reality this week after watching his 2003 Road to Seville DVD on repeat.
The Hoops’ deadline day signing, who cost £1 million from Premiership rivals Dundee, has revealed how he can still hear the commentary from the club’s famous run to Seville ringing in his ears. At the time, the 26-year-old midfielder was a primary school pupil who was desperate to follow in his idols footsteps.
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Hide AdHenrik Larsson, Chris Sutton, John Hartson, Stan Petrov, Alan Thompson - the iconic moments on their journey to the Andalusian capital are forever etched in his mind. Larsson’s winner against Boavista to reach the final, Thompson’s raking free-kick at Anfield under the wall before Hartson’s thunderbolt dumped Liverpool out - they are all ingrained in McCowan’s memory.


Now, he reckons it’s time for Brendan Rodgers’ side to create some new European tales of their own as they prepare to embark on this year’s Euro adventure. There have been a few high points since the run to Seville, such as defeating Barcelona, reaching the Champions League last 16 and recording home and away wins over Italian giants Lazio.
However, McCowan is aware there’s not been enough successful campaigns worth of creating a new DVD - something that he intends to put right. “I’ve watched the DVD for years,” McCowan confessed. “I was young, obviously, when it first came out. But it's the commentator's voice. I can't remember who was the commentator who'd done it for Celtic TV back then, maybe Archie Macpherson, but his voice stood out a mile. It was just a really grumble voice that stuck in my head - ‘Hartson!’ – watching those games when I was younger.
“I remember some of the moments, like Henrik Larsson heading it back across to Chris Sutton. To be fair, there's a couple. Thommo at Anfield was another one. Hartson at Anfield as well. He was just bullying boys that night. He was unreal. Aye, there's a few big memories in there. You want to create your own. Hopefully now that I've mentioned them, it will give us a bit of luck! It’s about trying to show you are good enough.”
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Hide AdCeltic’s Champions League campaign gets underway against Slovakian champions Slovan Bratislava on Wednesday night and McCowan is gearing up for the club’s latest European adventure less than a decade on from turning out for Lugar Boswell Thistle in the Ayrshire Juniors lower leagues.
He laughed: “Oh aye – you wouldn't be able to look at some of the footage – it would be all blurry! There wouldn’t be any good pictures of the pitches, that’s for sure. It wasn’t even the likes of Auchinleck, Cumnock and those bigger teams in the Juniors, back then. It was lower than that. I was playing even further down the leagues with the likes of Annbank, Lugar. That was through being on loan from Ayr at 18 or 19.
“At that point, I was just trying to show what I could do to get on Ayr’s bench. Then from there, you want to get on the starting team and so forth. You kind of just start going up that progression ladder. But no, if you told me back then as a young boy playing in the Juniors that I’d be going to be signed here at Celtic in a few years, it would have been a bit surreal.
“Playing in the Juniors toughens you up. Obviously when you come here to Celtic, it's total football right. In training I just joke with the lads, ‘the goals are up there, no need to pass to me!’ I get a few funny looks, but it’s a good laugh. It just shows the young boys here they are in a better place than I was at their age, so use it. It’s pretty incredible. Six years ago I was just a young boy in the Juniors. Now I’m here at Celtic and looking forward to my first experience of the Champions League.”
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Hide AdMcCowan always harbored ambitions of playing at the top level in Europe but he has always remained grounded throughout his career. He admitted: “My best trait is trying to stay present, not thinking too far ahead or thinking of things in the past. When I was at Ayr, my main goal was to play in the team, get goals and numbers there and see what happened from there. The ambition was to play here one day, but it was never a case of 'I'll get there, I'll get there'. I just kept doing what I was doing and progressed up the ladder and I find myself here now.
“It's a bit surreal. I think this year, I'll probably get a lot of things happening for the first time at the club. I've had my debut and if I get a chance to play in a Champions League game that will be another big milestone in my career but now that I'm in the door, it's not about feeling happy about that. It's about pushing on and trying to start the next game, be standing in the line-up, helping the team win those types of (Champions League) matches. That's the goal for me.”
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