There is no hiding place from ‘crisis’ for Tierney
AS befits the growing trend in football, Celtic’s latest DVD promises an ‘access all areas’ look at the squad which swept the domestic boards in the past two seasons.
Kieran Tierney denies any inside knowledge of the yet-to-becompleted production but can certainly vouch for its sentiment. Whether at his place of work or in the family home, the trials, tribulations and triumphs of his first love are omnipresent.
‘That’s the thing being a Celtic fan ... you go home to more Celtic fans talking about the game,’ he smiled. ‘You can’t get away from it. To an extent it’s what you want because I’ve always loved Celtic and I always talked about them after games.
‘Now when I come home my dad is talking about it: “What about this, you should have shot” or “You should have had a goal there” and all that.’
Tierney’s father Michael has had plenty to discuss of late. A difficult summer off the park for Celtic manifested itself in elimination from the Champions League and in squandered points to St Mirren and Kilmarnock.
A league table showing the pace being set by Hearts, Hibs and Livingston may be manna from heaven for neutral observers, but Celtic fans could live without the unscripted drama.
Recently, there have been signs their team may have weathered the storm. A late win against Rosenborg was just about deserved, as were subsequent one-goal wins over St Johnstone and Aberdeen.
To some extent, Celtic are the victims of the impossibly high standards set since Brendan Rodgers took over. But if some fans saw the team one loss from a full-blown crisis in recent weeks, Tierney has no issue with that.
‘It’s hard,’ he said. ‘But at Celtic that’s what you deal with.
‘The last few years we’ve always been consistent. We’ve not had many bumps in the road but now we’re facing one it’s about responding, and we bounced back well. It’s about the team, fans and manager being in it together.’
They have not yet hit the levels of Rodgers’ first season but, unquestionably, the second half at Perth and the 90 minutes last Saturday were a significant improvement on a laboured display at Rugby Park.
‘I did see good signs,’ said Tierney. ‘You work hard on the training ground, it’s not as if we’ve changed our approach to anything. It’s 100 per cent every day.
‘Sometimes things just don’t go your way. If you don’t play as well as you can then you get a bad result or two and people start questioning you.
‘But you need to stick to what you’ve been doing the last two years. That’s proved really successful for us.’
There was one encouraging reminder for Celtic fans of happier times when Scott Sinclair proved the difference against Aberdeen.
Entering the fold as an early replacement for Odsonne Edouard, he appeared to have received an infusion of confidence. The decisive goal, an improvised back-heel, wound back the clock to his all-conquering first season in Glasgow.
‘He maybe hasn’t played as much as he’d have liked but he changed the game and got the goal,’ said Tierney (below).
‘You could see how much it meant to him. Of course he can get back to that form he showed in his first season here. He’s a top player and shows that every single day at training but there’s a lot of competition to get into this team.
‘He’s been working hard and doing extra sessions practising his shooting, crossing and dribbling. He’s been in the gym as well. His attitude is 100 per cent right, it’s just about being given a chance and taking it.’ Come what may at Ibrox on Sunday, Hearts will enter the second international break as the side to beat. It is an enviable position to be in but one which Tierney claims comes with an added burden.
‘That could be interesting because usually the pressure is on us to lead from the front,’ he said. ‘But they’re sitting on top of the Premiership and they haven’t lost to anyone yet so the pressure will eventually build on them.
‘At Celtic, we’re used to dealing with that pressure. Hearts have had a great start and proved they’re really hard to beat. When we lost to them at Tynecastle, it was a really tough game.’
Although only seven games have been played, both Celtic and Rangers have considerable ground to make up.
The comfort for Tierney is that so many of his team-mates have been over the course before in seven previous title triumphs.
‘It’s good for the division that so many teams are challenging at this early stage but we want to climb up the table,’ he said.
‘We’ve still got 31 games to go and it’s a long season. We’re obviously not at the top just now. But our aim is to climb up, taking it game by game.
‘We’ve won it the last seven years and the expectation is on you to keep winning it. You’re looking to do that but it’s not easy.’