Luke McCowan has been defended from "personal" abuse with Celtic fans warned after he deactivated his social media. It was a dismal night for the Scottish champions as they threw away a 4-0 aggregate advantage over LASK - falling to a 5-4 defeat and crashing out of the Champions League.
McCowan singled out after costly error
But McCowan has been singled out by some irked punters for his performance from the bench - after he was dispossessed on the edge of his own box, allowing Adeniran to score the decisive fifth of the evening in extra time. The 28-year-old gave the ball away to the Austrian champions 19 times - having only entered the pitch after 71 minutes, replacing summer signing Mika Baur.
But with the club still counting the cost of dropping into the Europa League, McCowan appears to have taken himself off Instagram. McCowan's Instagram profile was unavailable on Wednesday, showing a "User not found" message.
Support from Open Goal duo
Amid the backlash, Open Goal podcast duo Andy Halliday and Paul Slane offered support for the struggling Celtic star. Halliday said: "I genuinely felt so sorry for McCowan last night. I genuinely felt so sorry for him, he looked lost, didn't he?"
Slane added: "It was obviously a really bad performance by McCowan last night; people pay money and they can criticise, but it should never cross the line on the performance..." Halliday cut in: "We have all been there - imagine how he is feeling just now?"
Slane went on: "That's the thing, he wasn't good last night and he did have a right bad performance, but as I said when you have an opinion, you are entitled to it and you have a right to say it, but never, ever say anything personal. That is when it becomes far too far."
