CELTIC’S teenage defender Kieran Tierney is enjoying a breakthrough season for the Hoops and is rapidly becoming a fan favourite with a string of assured performances at left-back.
The 18-year-old academy graduate has made eight appearances for Ronny Delia’s side this season.
Through no fault of his own he had a weekend off after Celtic’s Scottish Premiership match against Hamilton on Saturday was called off following a pitch inspection.
None other than Hoops boss Ronny Deila hailed the youngster’s performance in November 5’s Europa League defeat against Molde as Celtic’s only redeeming feature on a “dark day” at Parkhead.
Next up for Celtic is Thursday’s Europa League clash against Turkish side Fenerbahce in the final round of Group Stage fixtures – a dead rubber tie for the Bhoys, whose defeat at home to Ajax in their last Group A outing ended their ambitions of advancing to the last 32.
But Tierney admits having to pinch himself at times as his progress continues at Parkhead.
“I’m delighted with the progress I’ve made and the faith the manager has put in me by putting me in the team,” he told the official Celtic website.
“I just need to try to repay that with performances.
“It’s still hard to believe, playing for Celtic and starting matches in the first-team. I just need to take it all in and make the most of it.
He continued: “Everything that’s happened recently is hard to take in. I just see myself as still being a Celtic fan. It’s brilliant. I need to appreciate every moment I have with the first-team and make the most of it.
“I’ve worked so hard to play for Celtic and have supported them all my life, so it’s a dream to play for them. I don’t want to get too ahead of myself. I need to keep my feet on the ground. I’m still young, it’s still early doors and I need to keep working hard and get more appearances under my belt,” he said.
Meanwhile, Aberdeen moved to within four points of Celtic at the top of the Scottish Premiership with a convincing 2-0 win over Dundee on Saturday.
Dons forward Niall McGinn opened the scoring in the ninth minute, the Derry man driving it home from the edge of the box.
Striker Adam Rooney doubled the visitors’ lead after 25 minutes after he was set up by Jonny Hayes to give the visitors back-to-back wins for the first time since September.
Aberdeen manager Derek McInnes said: “It was tough conditions out there for both sets of players to endure. It was an energy sapping pitch and the Dundee ground staff deserve a lot of credit for getting the game on and we were glad they did.
“Our start was vitally important, we really imposed ourselves, we were aggressive and played at a real tempo. They have good players and we did not allow them to settle and we earned our reward for that.
“The conditions were going to have a big impact on the game but we knew if we did a lot of things right then we would have opportunities to show our quality.
“Kenny McLean was outstanding, especially in the first half but he was ably supported by his team-mates and we could have scored a few more.
“I’m not too concerned about point margins, I’m just pleased to add three points to the ones we earned last week. We are professionals who are paid to be here today.
“There were a lot of supporters who had a decision to make whether to be here and I’m grateful to every one of them who decided to come to the game as that was tough.”
