KIERAN TIERNEY won’t be scarred by Celtic’s Old Firm collapse and will continue to be a shining light for the Parkhead club.

That was the vow from Hoops centre-half Erik Sviatchenko who has nothing but admiration for the teenage left-back who has taken the Premiership by storm this season.

Tierney was Celtic’s star man once again when his team were outplayed by Rangers in the Scottish Cup semi-final, just as he was at the weekend in a laboured 1-1 draw with Ross County.

The experience of losing an Old Firm game – and having to deal with the resignation of a manager in the fall out – could understandably get to someone so young and threaten to halt their progression.

However, Danish defender Sviatchenko has no such worries for the 18-year-old kid he has come to admire in recent months.

“If we take Kieran, I don’t think the experience will scare him at all,” he told SportTimes.

“It’s a good experience for him to go through these games where we all need to come to the end with a positive result. Sometimes it doesn’t.

“For all players, it’s about how you bounce back and your character and attitude. If you can show that you can overturn difficult times.

“The Old Firm game was a difficult day, especially for the fans because they hoped for a massive win.

“But we will do everything we can to get there in the end.

“He is unoppressed and if he can go through those difficult times with this attitude he will go a long way.”

Sviatchenko admits it has been a joy to play alongside the young man who rightly won the Celtic Young Player of the Year award at the weekend.

The Dane believes it is just the start of a bright career for Tierney who he reckons will continue to progress rapidly as he has done this season.

And he admits he can even see similarities between Tierney and himself when he first started out in his homeland.

“I can say only positive things,” said Sviatchenko.

“He has this unimpressed attitude. It reminds me a little bit about myself when I was his age coming in to a big stage and be expected to perform.

“Kieran is operating at a much bigger club than I was with all respect to my former club Midtjylland. Celtic is just bigger and so is the pressure.

“How he has been adapting to all of this is really, really impressive.

“I have a lot of respect for a young lad like KT and wish that he can continue to develop in that really quick tempo that he has been doing.

“Offensively he is quick and has pace, defensively he is not overrun. It will just be experience he needs in the end to be that key player for Celtic in the future like he is in this moment.”