Morgan will delay summer holiday to give himself a head start at Celtic

Lewis Morgan has revealed he’s so determined to hit the ground running when he moves to Celtic he will immediately start training with the Premiership side once St Mirren’s season is over.

Saints midfielder Morgan grabbed an injury-time equaliser in Andorra to rescue a point for Scot Gemmill’s side and save them from a humiliating defeat in the Pyrenees Principality.

Morgan signed for Celtic in January and was immediately loaned back to the Paisley side.

He’s helped Jack Ross’s men get to within touching distance of winning the Championship and returning to the top flight. All going well, Saints will end their season several weeks ahead of Celtic, but instead of treating himself to an immediate holiday and an extended break, the 21-year-old has said he will report to Celtic as soon as St Mirren play their last league game on 28 April.

He said: “I speak regularly to the people there and some of the sports scientists were away with the Scotland national team so I saw them.

“All going well the season finishes earlier for us at St Mirren so I can get in training before the end of the season and be assessed before I go away.

“Of course it’s a step up so I know I’m going to have to work hard over the summer to make sure I’m at the levels I want to be when I go in.

“But I think it’s important to give myself a wee bit of downtime too. I’ll maybe not give myself as much of that as I would have before.

“I know I’ve got to go in there and impress. I’m sure the boys will be a lot superior physically compared to what most teams in Scotland are.

“I’m going in to embrace it all, hopefully I can 3 Lewis Morgan scored a late equaliser to rescue a point in Andorra. work hard over the summer and I go in and hit the ground running.”

Scotland produced a dismal display in Andorra la Vella, lacking intensity, passion and skill. They nearly came a cropper in the mountainous outpost after Ricard Fernandez converted a late penalty to give the hosts a shock lead, before Morgan struck a deflected equaliser in stoppage time. Gemmill’s side have still to play the Netherlands and Ukraine away, as well as England at home and a

rematch against the Andorrans. Clinching second place, which would give them a play-off spot for the finals, looks almost impossible now and certainly would be on Friday’s timid display.

But Morgan is convinced Scotland will raise their game again for the remainder of the campaign. He admitted: “Definitely we should be beating Andorra. With the talent we have in the dressing room it was somewhere we wanted to come and get the result. For one reason or another we just weren’t at it and didn’t reach the levels we’d set before.

“We only have ourselves to look at but we did get something from the game in the end.

“All credit to Andorra, they did well. They played their game, they were really well organised and we just couldn’t break them down.

“By the same token we could have snatched it at the end.

“It’s in our own hands. We have really tough games to come but we showed with the result against Holland at home we can dig out results like that.

“Maybe the good thing is we have to play the teams we’re challenging with. The group is still wide open.”