Leigh Griffiths and fellow Celtic stalwarts now medal giants at club as striker plots huge title turnaround under 'born winner' Scott Brown

Celtic's Leigh Griffiths makes it 3-2 during the William Hill Scottish Cup final against Hearts at Hampden Park, on December 20, 2020 (Photo by Craig Williamson / SNS Group)

Entwined with a run of nine titles, four straight domestic clean sweeps represents domination unlikely ever to be repeated.

Not just as a collective but on an individual basis have current figures at the Parkhead club cemented lasting greatness, though. This band doesn't just stand alongside club giants, in medals’ hauls they are club giants. With 22 such baubles, Scott Brown now sits behind only Willie Maley, Billy McNeill, Jock Stein and Bobby Lennox in Celtic’s most decorated list. Neil Lennon, with his exploits both as a player and manager - the final triumph over Hearts allowing him to become the only person in the Scottish game to have claimed a treble in both those roles - sits one behind Brown in those rankings.

James Forrest is just shy of his manager on 19, while Celtic’s 12th most decorated player is now Callum McGregor, with 15 honours. Leigh Griffiths and Tom Rogic are only one off McGregor. Their 14 medal successes puts them joint-15th of Celtic’s all-time silverware snarers...alongside luminaries Danny McGrain, Bertie Auld and Jim Brogan. It is incredible to think that six of the most successful men in the club’s 133-year history are presently in the employ of it.

Celtic striker Leigh Griffiths celebrates after scoring against Hearts. Picture: SNS

Griffiths also enjoyed a personal first after he came off the bench at Hampden on Sunday. His smart, close-range finish for Celtic’s third goal, in an epic, undulating tie that ended 3-3 before being settled in an equally twisty penalty shoot-out, provided the 30-year-old with a first goal for the club in a cup final. And a first goal at Hampden in more than three years.

The flakiness that has stalked Celtic throughout the season reared up as they threw away a 2-0 lead and a 3-2 extra-time advantage, but Griffiths has no doubts the strength of character that has allowed the club to consistently rewrite history across the past four years came to the fore when it counted. As the striker certainly did in stepping up to bury his team’s first kick of the shoot-out.

Celtic’s players and manager have been put through the wringer by their own shortcomings and their own support. Rangers have been able to establish a 16-point lead in a campaign where the demand on them is to claim the Holy Grail of a 10th consecutive title, while they suffered excruciating exits in both Europe and the League Cup.

Shaking off all their issues over the afternoon to land an historic Scottish Cup tells Griffiths the spirit remains sufficiently willing among the Celtic squad to believe they can pull off a stunning turnaround in the title race. To retain realistic hope of doing that they require to post wins in their four Christmas-period encounters. The first will bring Ross County to Glasgow on Wednesday, before Lennon’s men are at Hamilton on Boxing Day, host Dundee United on December 29, and then hop across the city for the pivotal derby at Ibrox on January 2.

Leigh Griffiths kisses a medal that was his reward for a Scottish Cup final win over Hearts that allowed Celtic to complete a quadruple treble and moves him into the top 15 for the most decorated figures in the club's history. (Photo by Craig Williamson / SNS Group)

“You need that winning mentality, especially when performances haven’t been great. The comments and stick we’ve been taking has been OTT at times. But hopefully that’s us turned the corner,” he said. “We’ve got a good run of games now where, hopefully, we should be picking up three points from all of them. We know teams will come and make it hard for us. So we need to be in the right frame of mind. Our job is to go and win these between now and the end of the month – and that sets us up nicely for the big one in January.

“Of course it hurts us, as players, to see fans outside of Celtic Park protesting. Because it wasn’t that long ago that those fans were cheering us on for winning the treble treble. Yeah, results this season haven’t been great. But we have to stick with it. The league campaign is a marathon, not a sprint. The Europa League was disappointing, of course, but the main focus is still to make sure we’re in that title race. Of course we can win the league. We do that by staying focused on every game and taking maximum points. That starts on Wednesday night, with Ross County. We’ll be looking for a bit of revenge against them because they put us out of the Betfred Cup. We’re looking forward to that. The celebrations after Hampden were brief – and we got focused on the next game.”

Much of the focus of Sunday fell on Celtic captain Brown. The 35-year-old snarled and goaded his way across what Griffiths in no way believes will be his swansong, despite the forward thrust recently brought to the team by Ismaila Soro, the man he displaced, appearing amiss. Notably, though, it was from his powered-in header that Griffiths was able to find the net.

“He’s a huge influence. For my goal, I was wondering what the hell he was doing in the box...He’s normally way back,” said Griffiths. “Listen, all the accolades he gets, they’re all earned. He’s had a little bit of stick but I don’t think that’s been justified. He’s a serial winner, a born leader, he’s in that dressing room every single day, driving the boys on, making sure they’re 100% at it.

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“I saw comments about would he start in the cup final, wouldn’t he, would Soro? The performance he put in against Hearts was unbelievable. He’s a born winner – and I’m delighted that he’s my captain. I think it spurs him on [when people say he’s finished]. I think he actually buzzes over that. Listen, he’s getting older so he maybe needs to be more wise about what he plays now. But the big games, he needs to play in those for us. In my opinion.”

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