Brendan Rodgers was pleased with Luke McCowan as Celtic triumphed at Motherwell

Celtic manager Brendan Rodgers was delighted to see his side’s strength pay off as Luke McCowan scored amid the absence of the injured Callum McGregor in a 3-0 win over Motherwell.

Goals from stand-in skipper Alistair Johnston and substitute Adam Idah helped Rodgers to by far his most comfortable victory at Fir Park, a ground where he had dropped points three times and seen his side-netting injury-time winners three times in six visits.

Motherwell midfielder Lennon Miller hit both a post and the crossbar before McCowan opened the scoring from 18 yards after clearing space himself to shoot.

“I’m so happy for him,” Rodgers said. “As a Celtic supporter coming in, there might be that enthusiasm at first, but then it disappears.

“But he performs with a lot of energy, a great passion for the game and he has quality. Callum obviously wasn’t going to play, so the idea was to bring him in because he’s a goal threat, and I thought he would do really well.

“You can see that in every game he plays, it seems like he can score goals or score a goal.”

Rodgers made a total of four changes after the midweek draw against Atalanta.

“We were able to rest Arne (Engels), who came in as a young player and played so many games that the distance he covered during the week was enormous,” he said. “I am obviously very grateful to the club for bringing in the players who allow us to do that.”

Cameron Carter-Vickers made his comeback from the bench after an injury, while McGregor is doubtful for the midweek visit to Dundee due to a hip injury but is expected to be fit for Saturday’s Premier Sports Cup semi-final against Aberdeen.

“It shouldn’t be too serious,” Rodgers said. “It was really mature because maybe he wouldn’t have said it before. He felt small after training.

“Rather than take any risk with it, we didn’t want to put him on a leash and maybe stretch it out and be out for a few weeks. “So hopefully he’ll be fine for the next few days, and if not on Wednesday, then hopefully he’ll be fine for next weekend as well.”

Motherwell manager Stuart Kettlewell felt the match depended on some missed chances for his team and a ball break for McCowan.

“I thought we were excellent in the first quarter of the game, created some good chances, hit the woodwork a few times and looked quite comfortable,” he said.

“We have to capitalize on those opportunities when they arise. I think we did a good job of getting them out.

“Celtic scored the goal which I thought was a bit of a coincidence. I know in this game you make your own luck, but there was a little bit of ricochet for McCowan to get through and then he finishes it well.

“Up until the moment of Celtic’s second goal, we felt like we were in a good place. I felt like we were where we needed to be and then the second goal is a killing blow.”

Kettlewell said Liam Gordon’s VAR-assisted stoppage-time red card for a tackle on Idah was “harsh”. The defender will miss Motherwell’s next two league games, but not the semi-final against Rangers, as all red card suspensions are now competition specific.

Kettlewell said: “The first thing you see on a screen is still images and of course it looks bad.

“I then spoke calmly to the referee to ask what he saw in the challenge. He was talking about the Celtic player’s ankle hinging, but my counter-argument to that is that you’re talking about Liam Gordon who is fully extended at that point and not really trying to get a toe on the ball with any force .

“I recognize that he does not get the toe point on the ball as I thought at the time, but I do not think he came in with reckless intent or tried to injure the Celtic player.”