'Totally ingrained': Celtic's answer to Lubo Moravcik emerges - it's hard to ignore him now

When Lubo Moravcik is in the house, it would be rude not to turn on the style. Celtic were sure to do this with bells on in the 5-0 destruction of Ross County on Saturday, with all the goals coming in a barnstorming opening half.

The 59-year-old Slovakian was introduced at half-time to conduct the Paradise Windfall lottery draw and got the inevitable rousing reception. It felt apt that not only were Celtic playing with such panache, but that a playmaker with the initials LM was running the show.

Indeed, scrunch your eyes up a bit, pretend Greenock is, erm, the picturesque historical town of Nitra where Moravcik grew up, and it might have been the little magician doing his thing to hurt Ross County in the attacking areas of the pitch.

Lubo Moravcik was back at Celtic Park to watch his old team thump Ross County 5-0. | SNS Group

Luke McCowan has the same slightly stocky build and with his hair highlights fading, isn’t so strikingly different in that department either. He just needs a floppy fringe. He seemed to be inspired by the presence of Moravcik, who is presumably someone he knows all about.

McCowan, who turns 27 next week, grew up a huge Celtic fan although it’s slightly alarming to note he was just 10-months-old when Moravick signed for the club in October 1997. McCowan was only four when he left, with the Slovakian having given doubters a crash course in why you shouldn’t question the signing of someone who’d already played in a World Cup quarter-final (for Czechoslovakia at Italia '90). The chances of McCowan having watched him with his own eyes are therefore slim.

Still, there were some seeming doffs of his metaphorical cap to the legend sitting in the stand, including his goal, the second of Celtic’s five, which saw McCowan cushion Liam Scales’ nicely lofted pass with his right foot before thrashing the ball into the net – via a chunky deflection it must be said – with his left foot.

What was it the great Henrik Larsson said about Moravik? Something about not knowing to this day whether his former teammate was actually right or left-footed.

McCowan seems almost as comfortable with the ball on either foot although it’s his left foot he favours, and with which he laid on three – count ‘em - assists. Indeed, he even had a hand in the other Celtic goal, setting Daizen Maeda away with a pass – with his right foot this time – that eventually led to Paulo Bernardo thrashing in for 3-0 after 35 minutes. It was an individual performance that Moravcik must have admired.

Is the fact that McCowan came off after 70 minutes, to be replaced by Reo Hatate, a sign that the midfielder might start for what would only stand as the fourth time in his short Celtic career against Aberdeen at Pittodrie on Wednesday? Perhaps. Manager Brendan Rodgers was coy afterwards on this subject, although he did remark that the player was now "totally ingrained" into the tempo of the team's touch-pass technique.

Luke McCowan was very impressive. | SNS Group

With this handsome victory, Celtic were also paying stylish tribute to former player John McNamee, whose death, at the age of 83, was announced at the end of last week. The home players all wore black armbands.

A very different kind of player to Moravick, or even McCowan, the uncompromising defender was known as ‘Big Bad John’. He left Celtic before the European Cup in 1967 – indeed, he was lured away from Parkhead by Jock Stein of all people, then the manager of Hibs, in 1963.

McNamee did, however, win a European trophy eventually. For Newcastle United, when they won the Inter-Cities Fairs Cup in 1969, although he didn’t feature in the final against Hungarian side Ujpesti Dozsa. He did start against Rangers in the semi-final first leg at Ibrox and warmed up wearing …..his old Celtic shirt. “I was just winding them up,” he said later. “Football had a sense of humour then and no-one accused me of inciting the crowd.”