Gesture was ‘stupid, but it won’t happen again’ says Hibs’ Leigh Griffiths

LEIGH Griffiths has said sorry to the Hibs supporters for aiming a second offensive gesture at his own fans in as many weeks.

The on-loan Wolves striker insists his conduct stems from “sheer stupidity” and “frustration” over the team’s relegation worries. Griffiths will now be out of action until the 19 February visit of Celtic with the club having accepted a two-match ban from the SFA over the player’s breach of rule 200.

The 21-year-old was caught on television making a one-fingered gesture to the Hibs supporters during Saturday’s 3-2 loss to St Johnstone, an act of indiscipline that will see him miss Saturday’s trip to Rangers and the 11 February visit of Aberdeen.

Incredibly, this is the third time in two months that Griffiths has been punished by the SFA for his behaviour on the pitch. He was handed a one-match ban for making an offensive under-arm sign to the Rangers fans in December, while he will miss the 4 February Scottish Cup tie with Kilmarnock after making the same gesture to Hibs supporters in the win over Cowdenbeath earlier this month.

But self-confessed Hibs fan Griffiths, who has notched eight goals in 22 games, insists he has now realised the error of his ways and has promised to eradicate his acts of folly. He said: “I do want to issue an apology. It’s just out of sheer frustration with the game going the way it was and the fans getting on your back, even though I felt myself that I was having a really good game.

“I tried to calm our fans down a bit by scoring the equaliser on Saturday, but I think they were even more frustrated at the defence and how we lost a goal 30 seconds later.

“You get fans giving you abuse when you’re taking corners. It was obviously a really silly thing to do and that’s me been done three times now.

“You would have thought that I would have learned after the first two times, but obviously I’ve done it again and got a bigger ban than what I got before. It’s out of sheer stupidity that I’ve done it, but I can tell you now that it won’t happen again.

“I’m trying hard in every game that I play and I think the fans are starting to see the best of me now. With Saturday’s game that’s me scored three goals in four games. I’m trying my best. Hopefully when I come back I’ll be trying even harder to get us pushing up the table.”

Hibs lost for the 13th time this season at the weekend, a result that leaves Pat Fenlon’s side just one point above basement side Dunfermline. And Griffiths admits he is feeling the pain of being part of Hibs side that is struggling at the wrong end of the table.

He added: “It hurts me a lot. I’m a Hibs fan and I don’t like to see the team being beaten, especially when I’m playing for the team I love.

“It hurts me every time the ball goes in our net. I try my hardest to score goals to try and help us win games. I don’t just need the fans on my side – it’s for the team as well.

“They know we’re trying hard, we work extremely hard on the training ground and we try and channel that into games. You can see it has paid off since the new manager has come in, we’ve acted differently and played differently. We’re scoring goals but we’re leaking goals as well and that’s what we need to cut out.”

Meanwhile, Motherwell have rejected a one-match ban offered to Michael Higdon for an alleged gesture made during their 1-1 draw against Dundee United. His case will be referred to a fast track tribunal today.

• Video reproduced by kind permission of Hibernian TV, the official online television channel of Hibernian FC.