Andrew Smith: Why Celtic's Leigh Griffiths should be Scotland's play-off wildcard

One-off games call for one-off talents.

Celtic's Leigh Griffiths nets with the sort of sublime finish that makes him worth a call-up by Scotland manager Steve Clarke for the Serbia play-off (Photo by Alan Harvey / SNS Group)

Leigh Griffiths said only last week that a Scotland recall for the country’s most important game in 13 years, the play-off in Serbia on November 12 that will earn the winner a berth in the delayed Euro 2020, was a “million miles” from his thoughts.

It is easy to see why. The 30-year-old has only been back playing for seven weeks, following an ankle injury sustained after he infamously emerged from lockdown carrying excess pounds. He has had only 119 minutes of competitive action, split across one start - a first half in the club’s defeat by AC Milan - and four substitute appearances. Yet, in two of those cameos, he has netted two goals. His glorious finish at Pittodrie recently was precisely the sort that any other striker Steve Clarke will select as back-up to first pick Lyndon Dykes would struggle to fashion.

Indeed, the three that joined the adopted Australian for Clarke’s last squad in Oli McBurnie, Lawrence Shankland and Callum Paterson, between them, have only scored three goals at club level this season. If the country needed to conjure up a goal across the closing 15 minutes in their play-off final to end the 22-year wait for qualification to a major finals, who wouldn’t fancy Griffiths’ chances of coming off the bench and doing so higher than those alternatives?

In his past seven appearances for his country, Griffiths has found the net four times. Across 31 caps, McBurnie, Shankland and Paterson have plundered one goal, the Dundee United frontman claiming that in a 6-0 thumping of San Marino. Griffiths should be Clarke’s wildcard.

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