Leading On To Bigger Things

Kieran Tierney led the Celts out of the tunnel as captain last week and he aims to learn from the experience.

- Tony Connelly

KIERAN Tierney has achieved far more at the age of 21 than most players ever will in their entire career, but the Celtic defender is still only in the opening act of his own journey and is continuing to make history along the way.

He cites hard work as the fuel for his success and recently reaped the rewards of that dedication when he captained his boyhood heroes in European competition for the first time.

Last week Tierney and the rest of the Celtic squad flew out to Austria for Celtic’s Europa League game against FC Salzburg. The Scottish champions started the group-stage campaign with a win against Rosenborg in Glasgow and hoped to add to their points tally in the second game in order to strengthen their case for a place in the next round.

It was deemed one of the most important games of the season so far and Brendan Rodgers would need a full-strength squad if his side were to take anything from a team who have shown the level of quality expected in European football.

Misfortune struck and Celtic were dealt a huge blow the day before they were due to fly out to Austria. Scott Brown was set to make his 100th European appearance in the Hoops against Salzburg but the 33-year-old pulled up during training with an injury and was ruled out of the Europa League game.

The Celtic captain still travelled with the squad, but it was certain he would not be on the pitch the following day. That left Brendan Rodgers with another decision to make ahead of a vital game and the manager’s answer to the dilemma was Kieran Tierney.

Tierney had captained Celtic on two previous occasions. The first was a pre-season game in the Dafabet Cup against Sunderland when Celtic won 5-0. The second was also a 5-0 win which came in the League Cup and included the goal of the 2017/18 season from Tierney who scored the fourth with an incredible strike from 35 yards.