Shattered Kieran Tierney last night shouldered the blame for Scotland’s humiliating defeat to Israel.

The Celtic full-back’s own goal from former Hoops star Beram Kayal’s cross ultimately cost Alex McLeish’s side the Nations League point they were clinging on to with 10 men.

It was a brutal piece of bad luck for the 21-year-old in a team performance riddled with defensive disasters.

But after the team were booed off the park by the 2000-strong Tartan Army in the Sammy Ofer Stadium, he insisted on being the fall guy and offered a heartfelt apology.

Tierney puts the ball into his own net

Tierney said: “I’d like to apologise to my team-mates, the fans, everybody really – it was my mistake that cost us at the end of the night.

“I need to be a man about it, take the abuse, take the hate then get on with it and try to fix it.

“It wasn’t the only problem but I’m at the heart of it, it’s my own goal.

“Everyone has given everything, including me, but it’s just unfortunate that I’ve made the mistake and we couldn’t get the goal back. It was always going to be hard.”

The full-back – deployed again at centre half by McLeish with Liverpool’s Andy Robertson ahead of him – seemed unduly harsh on himself for a defeat only kept at 2-1 because of keeper Allan McGregor’s heroics.

Tierney and Robertson have their heads in their hands

But he shrugged and said: “It’s going to come to me so I need to take it on the chin.

“You’ll get that as a footballer on the biggest stage and at centre back you’re always in the firing line. There’s always a chance that’s going to happen and unfortunately I got a stroke of bad luck.

“I was just trying to help the ball on, put it anywhere really, and sadly it went in the goal.”

Despite taking the lead with Charlie Mulgrew’s penalty before the break, the defensive set-up was under siege for the entire second half.

But Tierney insists the players felt comfortable with McLeish’s three-at-the-back system.

He said: “We knew we were going to come here and get a hard game. We did well to get the lead but one of things we were trying to avoid was them clawing one back just after half time – and they did just that.”

Tierney’s own goal came after Hearts defender John Souttar had seen red for two bookings.

And the Celtic star said: “When you go down to 10 men it’s always going to be even harder.

“I thought we coped well with it to be fair and even after the goal, we had a couple of good chances and good possession.

“The fans booing at the end, they’re probably frustrated at me for the mistake so all I can do is apologise to them.

“They support us through thick and thin and I can’t thank them enough.

Israel players celebrate going in front

“We knew what we were doing but they’ve got good players who will trouble you in any formation, they’ll find spaces.

“We tried at half-time to fix the problems they were causing but they’re a good team and we didn’t deal with them.”

With all three in the group now tied on three points, progress will come down to November’s double header.

Tierney said: “We’re back to square one now, everyone’s even so we need to be positive and move on.

“The dressing room is disappointed but the game’s over, we can only bounce back.”

Souttar is shown a red card

McLeish was left to rue Souttar’s dismissal and felt his second yellow, for a flailing arm, was harsh.

The Scots boss said: “It was a really, really harsh decision by the referee.

“He was about 40 yards away from it. John has put his arm up just to protect himself and Munas Dabbur milked it.”