Kieran Tierney: Tom Rogic still owes me for cup final winner

Celtic's Kieran Tierney. Picture: Alan Harvey/SNS

The lifelong supporter of the club would have been forgiven were he to have spent time this week watching re-runs of the team’s rampant display against Rangers that brought the 4-0 Scottish Cup semi-final pounding of the Ibrox men. The 21-year-old full-back, who played a key role in the set-up of the second goal at Hampden, is focused on moving forward, though.

“My dad goes over the games, but I don’t,” Tierney said. “We will analyse it in training and [first-team coach] John Kennedy will go over the good and bad bits with me. It’s one for the memories, deffo. Looking back in years to come it will be a great memory for me, but we still have big games to look forward to and can’t dwell on this too long. “[Even if you are four goals up] I don’t think you can enjoy it for too long during the game. One mistake and they are in. Craigy [Gordon] pulled off saves in this match and while it may look comfortable in possession, you can never allow yourself to switch off.”

Tierney insists there is no way Celtic can switch off in any way despite, in essence, having a pressure-free lead-up to the cup final. “We still have to win the league – so after resting up we can hopefully beat Hibs,” he said.

Celtic’s seventh straight title is in the bag, whatever happens at Easter Road on Saturday. The notion that a second successive treble is a done deal ahead of next month’s Scottish Cup final against Tierney’s hometown club Motherwell isn’t one the defender would dare allow himself to even consider.

“A double-treble has never been done for a reason – it’s very hard,” he said. “We have to work in training to get there. We’ve now put ourselves in a great position and it’s up to us to be 100 per cent and do the business now.”

Tierney will be hoping for a personally less painful Scottish Cup final this year than he experienced last time out. The full-back lasted only 27 minutes of the treble-earning triumph against Aberdeen after taking an elbow in the face from Jayden Stockley.

He was forced to make a dash to hospital after losing teeth and sustaining a jaw injury, and only made it back in time to lift the trophy won by a last-minute Tom Rogic strike.

“It wasn’t great for me,” said the Scotland international, “But then Tom came on for me and scored so basically he owes me one for that.”