Leigh Griffiths out for Hibs’ 40 year scoring record

Leigh Griffiths is closing in on becoming the first Hibs player in 40 years to score 30 goals in a season. Picture: SNS

A glory double which helped fire the Easter Road outfit into the final of the Scottish Cup for the second season in succession as Pat Fenlon’s side fought back from three goals down to defeat First Division Falkirk took Griffiths’ tally for the season to 25.

While that total already outstrips the feats of his boyhood idol Derek Riordan and Anthony Stokes, though, Griffiths is now aiming to hit at least five more. If he were to do so he’d be the first player in a Hibs shirt to do so since both Alan Gordon and Jimmy O’Rourke did so in season 1972/73.

Griffiths, however, will have to go some to beat the 42 Alan Gordon notched in 56 games that season or the 34 O’Rourke claimed in just 37 matches, their strikes helping “Turnbull’s Tornadoes” to amass 141 goals in all competitions.

The on-loan Wolves star needs just three more goals to emulate the 28 scored by Steve Cowan in season 1985/86, the most by a Hibs player since the feats of Gordon and O’Rourke, but in Monday night’s edition of the club’s matchday programme for the visit of Aberdeen, the 22-year-old reveals he has his heart set on 30.

Griffiths, who rates his extra-time winner against the Bairns as his best of the season said: “I’m buzzing about reaching the 25-goal mark. At the start of the season if you’d have said that I would have scored that many by now I would probably have laughed. But now I’ve scored that many I want to kick on and score 30. There are six games to go and I would love to reach that total, that’s my aim.

Hibs players who have scored 20 goals and more since season 1972/73: 73/74 Alan Gordon 23; 74/75 Hoe Harper 25; 77/78 Ally McLeod 23; 83/84 Willie Irvine 24; 85/86 Steve Cowan 28; 04/05 Derek Riordan 23; 05/06 Derek Riordan 20; 09/10 Anthony Stokes 23; 12/13 Leigh Griffiths 25 and counting.