Casey Howe: From Maguiresbridge to Celtic's Bright Future

From Maguiresbridge to the East End of Glasgow, the miles tell only half the story.

Casey Howe has already lived a career that feels longer than her 23 years: a Northern Ireland debut at 17, a treble with Glentoran, a move to Nottingham Forest, promotion with Wolves, goals in the League of Ireland with Athlone Town. Now she’s at Celtic, and for the first time, it feels like everything is pointing in one direction.

A long road to Barrowfield

The route to Celtic’s state-of-the-art Barrowfield training centre did not begin in a professional academy. It began in the car.

Her parents’ car, to be precise, clocking up miles from Maguiresbridge to Ballinamallard, Cookstown, Belfast. Four or five days a week. Training, matches, trials. Repeat.

“They wanted to give me the best platform to be the best I can,” she said, reflecting on those years of motorway and back roads. Without that, she knows she would not be here. “If it wasn't for them sacrificing a lot of driving, a lot of miles, I wouldn't be here.”

Those journeys carried her through Linfield, Glentoran and Sligo Rovers. They led to that prolific spell at Athlone Town in the League of Ireland Women’s Premier Division, where her sharp movement and eye for goal started to catch attention across the water. Each step nudged her further away from home, but closer to the level she always believed she could reach.

Now the destination is Celtic, one of the powerhouses of Scottish women’s football. For a “young girl from Maguiresbridge”, as she calls herself, the scale of it still lands with a jolt.

“It is pretty surreal to do this,” she admitted to BBC Sport NI. Surreal, yes. But she looks ready for it.

A left foot, a statement

It has not taken long for Howe to announce herself in green and white.

On just her second appearance for the club, with Celtic pushing but still locked at 0-0 against Montrose in the Scottish Women’s Premier League, she stepped inside on that left foot in the 82nd minute and curled the ball into the far corner. A beautiful finish. A pressure-breaking goal. The first in an eventual 3-0 win.

The strike felt like more than a first goal. It felt like confirmation that she belongs here.

Celtic’s approach under head coach Grant Scott suits her. It’s fast, front-foot, attacking football, the kind that invites risk and rewards imagination.

“We're trying to play a nice attacking brand of football,” she said. “As an attacker myself, that's the way you want to play and want to be a part of, is when you're attacking and playing free-flowing football.”

Give her space to run. Give her licence to drive at defenders. Give her the freedom to drift into different areas and make different movements. That is when she comes alive.

“I've played under people in the past where it's almost robotic. You have to do this movement, that movement,” she explained. At Celtic, it’s different. “To have the freedom to be allowed to run into different areas or make different movements, it just makes for an all-round performance, team-wise, because everyone's moving. It makes it difficult to play against, so it definitely gives you confidence as a player.”

The message from the coaching staff is clear: be brave, be bold, be yourself. Howe feels backed. And when a forward feels trusted, the game tends to open up.

Tactics, detail and the next level

Howe is not treating this as a comfortable landing spot. She sees Celtic as a launchpad.

“I think as a player, you're always looking to develop in any training session,” she said. The demands in Glasgow are sharp. The tactical work is detailed. Styles shift from game to game, and the squad is constantly adjusting to Scott’s plans.

“It's definitely a big improvement tactically, and we're adapting to different styles, getting used to how Grant Scott wants us to play, so we're always adapting tactically and keeping on top of the technical stuff.”

For a 14-cap international, this is the kind of environment that can stretch her game: better opposition, higher expectations, daily standards that force her to refine every touch, every run, every decision.

The attacking freedom she craves is built on that structure. It is not chaos; it is controlled movement, layered on top of a clear idea of how Celtic want to play. And she fits it.

Fermanagh, the miles and the message

No matter how polished the surroundings at Barrowfield, Howe’s connection to home is never far away.

She knows exactly what it means to come from County Fermanagh and try to break into elite football. She knows the barriers: geography, facilities, opportunity.

“I think sometimes it's hard because being from Fermanagh you don't necessarily have the facilities on your doorstep,” she said. “A lot of the time, a lot of girls, even young girls now, will still have to travel up and down.”

Those long trips that defined her childhood are still a reality for the next generation. That is why every success matters. Every goal, every appearance, every medal is proof that the miles are worth it.

“All the sacrifices, as we spoke about earlier, like, winning makes it all worth it.”

For young girls watching from Fermanagh, or anywhere in Northern Ireland where pitches and pathways are scarce, Howe wants to be living evidence that there is a way through.

“If I can leave women's football in Northern Ireland, in Scotland, in England that 1% better than when I joined it - that's a win for me,” she said. “And if that inspires young girls in Fermanagh to push on and know that there is a path there then that's good enough for me.”

Wearing green, thinking legacy

Celtic may be the current stage, but the green shirt of Northern Ireland still tugs at her thoughts.

She broke into the senior side as a teenager and has watched the national team grow in profile and belief. Now she wants to help push it further.

“I want to leave the Northern Ireland shirt in a better place than when I came in. I always want that legacy to continue to build and grow.”

That word – legacy – is not thrown around lightly. For Howe, it ties together everything: the early drives from Maguiresbridge, the nights on training pitches far from home, the move across the water, the goal against Montrose, the standards at Celtic, the ambitions with Northern Ireland.

From Ballinamallard United to Barrowfield, she has already come a long way. Yet the sense is that she is only just hitting her stride.

There are trophies to chase in Glasgow, a national team to elevate, and a generation of young girls back home checking the scores and seeing a familiar place next to a famous name.

The road has been long. The next stretch might be the most important.