Luke McCowan was determined to show respect to Dundee as he returned to Dens Park in a Celtic shirt.
The attacking midfielder left the Dark Blues in the summer in a £1 million deal to join the champions.
He’s since gone on to play Champions League football and returned to Dens with a bang on Tuesday night.
Within five minutes of the contest, McCowan had already shown Dundee what they are missing with a superb header into the far corner.
But the celebration was muted.
Asked about his reaction, McCowan joked: “It was just heading the ball and probably forgetting. I’m not used to heading it!
“Nah, I was never going to celebrate if I was going to score.
“You don’t think that during the game, it just kind of comes to you as it happens.
“I was at Dundee for four years so I was never going to run away in the corner and celebrate.
“I wanted to be respectful in that way because they were good to me – I was never going to run away with the arms up.
“Was there pressure going back? Playing for this club, you get the pressure in every single game.
“It was different. You’re on the opposite side of the pitch, warming up and stuff like that, just wee things like that.
“It wasn’t much I thought about, it was just seeing old faces, which was nice.
“You’re here to play a football match, I had to go and do that.
“That was my mindset going there.”
No surprise
Despite McCowan’s opener, Dundee fought back to eventually lead 3-2 going into stoppage time before Arne Engels netted a stoppage time penalty to earn a point for the Premiership leaders.
McCowan, though, wasn’t surprised to see the reaction from his old side.
“Oh, no, not at all,” he said.
“I know how Tony Docherty and all the staff and all the players in there would come to a game like this, especially after the confidence from their game last week.
“We knew it was going to be difficult. It’s always a tough game here, I’ve played it on the other side.
“You know what you’re getting.
“We just weren’t at the levels we should have been.”
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