The 20-year-old provided the assist from which Ross Forbes scored to seal the Ton’s place in the third round of the League Cup at the expense of Queen of the South.

Johnstone came through the Doonhamers’ youth system as a kid, while his great-grandfather, Bobby Black, was an iconic striker for the Palmerston outfit in the 1950s and 1960s. And he told the Tele: “I’m born and raised in Dumfries and was at Queen of the South from eight-years-old until I was 13 and obviously went on to Celtic from there.

“Tuesday was a big game for me. It was the first time I had been back — I moved to Glasgow a few years ago so I’m not in Dumfries often and I’d never actually played at Palmerston.

“My great-grandad was a bit of a legend there back in the day. I think Queen of the South were in the top flight at the time and he spent a few years there and made quite an impact.

“He only passed away recently, a couple of years ago, and he did manage to come and watch me.

“Funnily enough, the only game he ever saw me play was at Cappielow for Scotland.

“All my dad’s side of the family are still local to Dumfries, so I had a fair few people at the game to watch me.

“There were also friends from school there as well. I could hear them cheering me, shouting ‘unlucky’ or whatever — but from the Queens end, which was strange!

“So it was important for me to win on a personal level, definitely. And it was an important win for us as a team.

“We were delighted with the performance and result because we knew all about the start Queens had made to the season.

“They had taken nine points from the first three games, and we had heard they were playing some really good, attractive football as well. So all the boys were ecstatic after the game.” Goalscorer Forbes today told how he was preparing to give Johnstone a piece of his mind during Tuesday’s game after he initially failed to feed him the ball to score. Although the striker eventually picked out his team-mate’s run and saved himself a rollicking, he admitted he WAS weighing up whether or not to go for goal instead.

He grinned: “I did consider having the shot! But I realised he was in a better position than I was to have a pop at goal.

“To be fair, I only heard him shout for it because I couldn’t actually see him at the time, so I’m just glad he did and that I passed it.” The third round draw will be held at Hampden this afternoon, and Johnstone would quite like to be drawn against familiar opposition again in the next stage of the competition.

He concluded: “I’d love the chance to go back to Celtic Park and play against Celtic. But, apart from that, maybe a tie against someone in the top half of the Scottish Premiership would be good.”