Celtic regime '˜relentless' but makes winning all the sweeter, admits Kieran Tierney

For the teetotal Kieran Tierney, even his choice of post-match grub to celebrate Betfred Cup final success on Sunday demonstrated the ravenous hunger to keep gobbling up trophy success that the Celtic left-back sees copious helpings of throughout Brendan Rodgers' squad.

Kieran Tierney at full time with the fans after Celtic secure a seventh trophy under Brendan Rodgers' leadership. Picture: SNS Group

The club’s trip to Motherwell tonight meant that the party for a seventh consecutive domestic honour was practically restricted to some jumping around behind the scenes at the national stadium.

The 21-year-old concedes that the relentless nature of life as a Celtic player pushing on four fronts a season can be draining, but that it makes the triumphs all the sweeter.

Tierney is proud the Scottish champions could bound from a Europa League win away to Rosenborg straight into a final and not come be left empty-handed. Such an appetite for victory must be nourished with other than fast food.

“You don’t get too much time to celebrate,” said the Lanarkshire defender, who isn’t fazed by Rangers having gone top in the Premiership on Sunday as Celtic missed a league fixture to contest the final.

“In the changing room after the game at Hampden, it was brilliant. The scenes were amazing and will live with me forever. But when you go home on the Sunday, you can’t even eat unhealthily. I wish it could have been a Chinese...But you have to keep doing the right things because there’s another game coming right away and that’s what you have to do to try and be successful.

“Myself and the family have a small celebration, spend time together and that is what’s important. These are the great times, but even when we’ve had hard times, they are there for me.

“It’s just crazy what we have achieved. I don’t think you can say too much about it right now. It’ll be later when you appreciate what you have done.

“Also when times start to get tougher, that might be a time when you really start to understand it.

“We were back for a cup final two days after we got back from Norway and it was a crazy schedule. To deal with that and to get a clean sheet and a victory made it special.

“Some people say we should be always winning because of the players we have, but you need to be driven and have the desire to keep going when things aren’t simple or you are being asked serious questions.

“The biggest part of what happened at Hampden was the hunger of the boys. It’s hard to play your best after having a big European game and Aberdeen were going into the game with a full week of rest.

“They were fresh with training, rest and recovery and we knew what we’d be up against, but the heart and the passion we showed was brilliant and you need that to get you through sometimes.

“Motherwell will now be thinking the same way as I’m sure Aberdeen would have been thinking in terms of: ‘Right, Celtic have just come off a hard game, let’s try and make it tough for them’.

“To be honest, that’s probably the way every team is going to be thinking these days.

“We need to be on it every single week and we are playing 60 games a season where we are, basically, expected to win 60 games a season. That is a crazy situation, but that is what gives us the hunger.

”We know the expectation is there and we don’t want to let anyone - especially not anyone in our own changing room or the fans - down.”