Luke McCowan abuse has clearly crossed a line after Celtic's LASK collapse
It was a night to forget for Celtic midfielder Luke McCowan, but he deserves more than what he has been given from some fans over the last few hours.
McCowan came off the bench during Celtic's Champions League collapse against LASK that saw them blow a four-goal lead over normal time and extra-time to crash out of the Champions League.
The blame has to be shared. Many of Celtic's starters failed to turn up, making key mistakes, and many of the substitutes made poor contributions, and the board may have the most questions of all to answer.
MCowan's difficult night
As for McCowan, there is no hiding that he had a night to forget. The 28-year-old came off the bench and had a nightmare.
He gave the ball away repeatedly, and in bad areas. In fact, a strange decision to try to take on an opponent in his own half led to him losing the ball and giving up the winning goal.
Criticising a performance is more than fair - this is professional football, after all - and McCowan was the lowest-rated player in our player ratings, scoring a three.
But some of the abuse the midfielder has received on social media is unacceptable. Criticism should be limited to his performance. At the end of the day, no player is going out and trying to fail.
McCowan, like his teammates, went onto that pitch dreaming of waking up this morning a Champions League player. He is going to be as devastated as everyone, and plenty more given the mistakes he made.
He needs no reminding of those mistakes, but he will understand that it is the nature of the sport that he will have to answer for them in one way or another. But every person slating him this morning has also had a bad day at work, making mistakes they shouldn't have. They should ask themselves, would it have helped for someone to abuse them for their mistake?
But some of the personal attacks seen on social media overnight and through the morning have been appalling, and it seems to have led to the midfielder making his Instagram profile private. That is the right thing to do.
The general anger from supporters towards the club is understandable, but these players give their all to give fans something to cheer about, and the job is to support those players, even in the tough times.
McCowan needs that support now, and to their credit, there have been some fans who have offered it. It is the minority who have crossed the line, but it cannot be ignored that the abuse has been taking place.
