It’s no great secret that, although arriving at the Hoops in a defensive capacity, that Irishman, Liam Scales came packed with plenty of goalscoring capabilities in his locker.

However, with barely 45 minutes of action in his three substitute appearances prior to today - against Raith Rovers in the League Cup and Ferencvaros twice in the Europa League - he’s hardly had ample opportunity to show his scoring prowess.

Then came today, and it took only six minutes into his first SPFL appearance for the former Shamrock Rovers man to find the net against Dundee United at Tannadice.

And what a goal it was as Liel Abada cut the ball back to the edge of the box and Scales, with no lack of nonchalance, adjusted his footing ever so slightly to catch the ball with his left peg and turn it into the overworked but obviously efficient Benjamin Siegrist’s net from 17 yards for Celtic’s third of the day.

He’s been used to rustling the net in the Hoops of the Dublin outfit, but this was an entirely different experience altogether in the Hoops of Celtic.

The Irishman said: “It’s unbelievable – on my league debut to come on, it was just kind of ‘Roy of the Rovers’ stuff.

“It just fell to me at the edge of the box, I was running at it full-steam and I had a go.

‘And I was buzzing when it went in. I couldn’t hold in my emotions.’

“I was just thinking to shoot and try to get it on target, get my body over the ball and make sure it doesn’t go flying over the bar.

“But I knew once it was falling for me that I had to shoot – it was a no-brainer.”

Following the game, Ange Postecoglou said of young players starting their Celtic career: ‘the dream is, can you score?’ Well Scales is now living that dream.

He said: “My phone’s hopping, I reckon it’s going to take me the whole bus journey home to answer the messages.

“Everyone’s delighted for me, it’s the stuff of dreams.”

And on fighting for a place in the team, the 23-year-old added: “The competition is crazy in the squad at the moment the way we’re playing. The performances have been excellent and I understand I have to be patient and once I get chances I have to do well.

“So I’m happy with how I did today and the chance I got.”

Roy of the Rovers experience way off the Scales for debut scorer