Emma Lawton reflects on a meteoric rise with Celtic, a first Scotland goal, and facing Real Madrid

Scotland and Celtic defender Emma Lawton says she’s still pinching herself after her achievements in her first season as a professional footballer.

The 23-year-old has gone from part-time football to scoring for Scotland on her Hampden debut in a whirlwind of a season that ended with her as an award-winner lauded by her peers.

Lawton started this season at Partick Thistle but sealed a dramatic deadline day move to the then SWPL Champions Celtic.

In a season to remember, she established herself as a first-team player, gained Champions League experience, and then made a splash on the international scene with her first appearance for her country playing away against Austria in February.

Days later, in her second international, the right-back opened the scoring against Netherlands at Hampden to continue her rapid rise. Little wonder the Celtic star was voted as PFA player of the year.

“It’s been really enjoyable,” Lawton told STV as she reflected on a season to remember. “Coming in, I didn’t really have a lot of expectations of how it would go for myself.

“But I’ve loved every minute. I think, obviously, as a team, we had the highs of the Champions League in the first half of the season, and obviously second half hasn’t been great.

“But personally, I have loved being a full-time football player, which is what I’ve always dreamed of being.”

Lawton started out kicking a ball around in the garden with her cousin, but it was early experience as the only girl in a youth team that helped build resilience that’s an important part of her game today.

“Starting out in a boys’ team, nobody passed me the ball and stuff,” she revealed. “But I just loved the game, and I just stuck it out.

“It was challenging at first, not getting the ball passed to you. But then I think as soon as they did, they realised ‘actually, she can play’.

“It just built up that resilience in me. I think I always knew I could play, and it just gave me that inner confidence, and it kind of put me on a platform where I just had to believe in myself, and I didn’t need anybody else to tell me stuff.

“I always just knew within that I could do it.”

That grounding set Lawton on a path to the senior game with time at Partick Thistle before a brief spell at Manchester City in the Covid spell, and at Motherwell before a return to Thistle.

On deadline day this season, an opportunity to step up came in the form of an offer from Celtic. Lawton said she couldn’t sleep the night before making a move that came unexpectedly. Weeks later, she was playing in the biggest club competition in Europe.

“I’m going to be honest, it’s all a bit of a blur,” Lawton admitted. “I think I scored in the Champions League two weeks on from when I’d signed, and then we got into the group stage, obviously from that game.

“A month from that game, I was playing away at Real Madrid. It was a ‘pinch me moment’.

“You dream of playing Champions League as a young player, but I never thought I would actually be able to do it. To do it so quickly in my Celtic career is a proud moment.”

Scoring for Scotland was another treasured moment.

Signing for Celtic, I never thought what would happen this season would happen,” she said.

“Getting picked for Scotland was an honour, but then to start both games, and then score at Hampden, it was special.

“I had all my family there, and it’s something that will live with me for a very, very long time.”

Now the international defender is setting new targets and having new dreams, as she hopes to help the national team and take her rise to new heights.

“I think the future is bright for Scotland and hopefully we can achieve that majors finals,” she said. “It’s what the country deserves, and we’ve got the players to do it.”