LEIGH'S TOP 20 ENTRY

Leigh Griffiths on entering Celtic’s top-20 goalscorers of all time, and pushing for more this season and beyond

- JOE DONNELLY

ON February 22, 2014, Celtic overcame Hearts 2-0 at Tynecastle. The result itself reflected the Hoops’ domestic dominance at the time – the win saw them climb 24 points clear at the top of the Premiership – but the afternoon’s two major talking points were focused on individual performances.

At the top of the pitch, Leigh Griffiths marked the occasion with his first-ever Celtic goal with a fine strike on 58 minutes. And, at the opposite end, Fraser Forster’s 13th successive clean sheet saw him eclipse Bobby Clark’s Scottish League record of 1,155 minutes without conceding a goal in league competition.

Griffiths had joined the Paradise side from English outfit Wolverhampton Wanderers during that season’s January transfer window, and he was delighted to get off the mark in Glasgow’s green and white against the rivals of his boyhood heroes, Hibernian. After the match, the striker hailed his colleague Anthony Stokes for the pass up-field which preceded the strike, and admitted the stick he received in the build-up from the Tynecastle stands fuelled his drive towards goal.

Fast forward less than seven years and Leigh Griffiths has set another club and personal record, now among Celtic’s top-20 goalscorers of all time, rubbing shoulders with the likes of Kenny Dalglish, Stevie Chalmers and Henrik Larsson. With 118 strikes to his name, the striker surpassed Bobby Collins’ – who played for the Hoops in the 1940s and 50s – record of 117, a number Griffiths hit in the 3-3 draw with Aberdeen at Pittodrie earlier this month.