If Kieran Tierney rubs his eyes in disbelief this morning, there is also a quiet sense of vindication from the 18-year-old.

The Celtic full-back, a graduate from the club academy just over a year ago when he made his first-team debut at Dens Park, has repeatedly voiced his belief that he could not have scripted a better maiden season for himself.

Tierney has barely put a foot out of line as he has gone from fledgling aspirant to established first-team player. And the teenager has revealed that his current status is owed to a fear of being cast aside as he came through the ranks at the club.

“I am obviously not the biggest and it is always at the back of your mind that someone might decide that you are too small, too slight to make it,” he said. “For me, I always tried to over-compensate with working hard on the technical side of my game.

“Obviously you can’t do anything about the height you are but it meant that I always listened and worked on my awareness and technical aspects of the game. I don’t think I ever took it for granted that I would make it all the way into the first- team – I still think that I would see myself as being on the outskirts of it.

“I am still like that. I just want to learn and get better. It has been an amazing season for me but I do think there is loads that I can still improve on.”

Tierney took his first senior accolade on Sunday night when he was named as the Young Player of the Year at the club’s annual awards ceremony, an accolade that he was slightly overwhelmed by.

The challenge now for the player might lie in cementing his place in the senior team and with a new manager coming into the club there is a sense that he might have it all to prove again.

In any respect, Tierney has already taken on board a critique of his season.

“I know what I will be working on – my heading, my weaker foot, my positioning, how to get better going forward,” he said. “Those are the main things for me just now.

“I don’t want it to be the case that I have one good season and then fall out of the team. I want to be here to stay and at a club like Celtic there is always going to be competition so you need to prove yourself all the time.

“I do feel as though I have developed and learned so much just from playing first-team football. The step up from under-20s is big but I have taken on board so much and I definitely feel so much fitter and stronger than I did a year ago.”

Meanwhile, Tierney is delighted to find himself officially nominated by his peers for the Young Player of the Year award. And he has insisted that departing manager Ronny Deila will always be revered for the chance he took on him.

“It is just crazy how much has gone on this year,” he said. “I wouldn’t ever have been able to imagine it going as well as it has.

“But I do think that I owe so much to Ronny Deila. I have said it before that he believed in me and gave me my chance and I honestly don’t think I would be at this stage now without him.

“He isn’t the only one. The senior lads have all been brilliant with me and have given me plenty of advice, either during games or up at Lennoxtown when we have been training.

“Leigh Griffiths has scored an amazing amount of goals but he has been good at taking time to explain where he wants the ball and stuff and that has helped me when I have been going forward.

“I am delighted for him because he is getting a lot of praise now and he deserves it. People don’t realise how hard he trains or how much he works at it. He deserves to win the award because he has been outstanding for us this season.”

There is an argument to suggest that Tierney is among the first names on the team-sheet, but the player has admitted that he is still a little reticent to believe he is a fully fledged first-team player.

“I feel a bit differently now from when I first got into the team but at the same time I would still think of myself as being a bit on the fringes of it,” he said.

“I think I still have a wee bit still to do before I think of myself automatically as a first-team player. I am just happy to be where I am just now.”

Tierney’s season will be made all the more memorable with a Championship medal, something that could be confirmed this weekend.

Celtic head to Tynecastle knowing that a win coupled with a stumble from Aberdeen would seal the title and Tierney believes that the Hoops needs to look after their own business before peering over their shoulder.

“We just want to win the game and get three points,” he said. “I will be happy however we win it – I just want to win it. It would be nice to do it in front of our own fans but I think that even if we don’t they will still go out and enjoy it.”