The rise and rise of Leigh Griffiths

Leigh Griffiths, player of the year

40 goals in a season secures Griffiths a place in Celtic history

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When Leigh Griffiths signed for Celtic, there were those who doubted him, there were those who didn't want him at the club due to past misdemeanours. Some doubted his ability, he never did.

On the 20th August 1990, Griffiths was born in Edinburgh. There was no way of telling that he'd go on to play for one of the world's biggest clubs and achieve the spectacular tally of 40 goals in a season.

The tail end of December 2006, saw a 16 year old Griffiths make his debut for young Scottish club Livingston, coming on as an 82nd minute substitute. He would remain at Livingston until the summer of 2009, scoring 26 goals in 53 appearances, meaning he scored in 49.1% of the games he featured in.


Young Griffiths starting his career

The next stop on his road to success takes us to the east coast city of Dundee. Despite other clubs being interested, Griffiths chose to sign for Dundee, believing he would benefit from increased first team football there. He became a fan favourite at Dundee, scoring 34 goals in 62 appearances.

His performances for Dundee were rewarded when Wolverhampton Wanderers signed him in the 2011 January transfer window. Spending much of his time on loan at Hibernian, Griffiths managed 13 goals in 31 appearances for Wolves. Most of his appearances came in the 2013-14 season, spending the previous two seasons on loan at Hibs, where he scored 11 goals in 2011-12, then 28 goals in 2012-13.


Griffiths arrived at Celtic to some dissenting voices

Eventually, Celtic came calling. On 31st January 2014, Griffiths penned a deal with Celtic, making his debut in a 2-1 loss to Aberdeen in the Scottish cup. His first half season as a Celtic player saw him scoring his first Celtic goal against Hearts, along with his first Celtic hat-trick in a 5-0 home win against Inverness Caledonian Thistle.

Griffiths' time at Celtic hasn't always been plain sailing. There was a controversial incident involving the Celtic stiker in April 2014 which left a bad taste in the mouth of the Celtic support. With many questioning the decision to bring him to the club in the first place, this incident furthered the belief that he shouldn't be entitled to wear the famous green & white hoops. An apology followed, with Griffiths being punished by Celtic and cautioned by Neil Lennon.

During his first half season at Celtic, Griffiths managed 14 appearances, hitting the net 7 times. When given the chance, he shows he can score regularly. With support from the club and Neil Lennon, he realised he had to behave in a more mature manner when representing Celtic off the field.

At the end of the 2013/14 season, Neil Lennon decided to leave Celtic. With Griffiths being a Lennon signing, he could consider himself to be one of many players who wondered if the new manager had him in their plans. Enter Ronny Deila.

Deila placed Griffiths on the substitute bench regularly, when he first arrived, stating the following in regards to Griffiths' lack of starts:

The above quote from Deila clearly showed that Griffiths was eager to impress, but Deila demanded a higher level of fitness and training effort from Griffiths. This was something Deila demanded of all his players, but by mentioning this to Griffiths specifically, it could possibly have been the catalyst for the magnificent 40 goal season we have just witnessed.

It's difficult to say that for certain, but what can be said is that Deila made Griffiths aware that he had areas where he needed to improve and Griffiths took the advice, which led to him producing the best season of his career to date. With consideration of every criticism that has been aimed at Deila, credit must be given for the role he had in further developing Leigh Griffiths.


Griffiths with the SPL trophy

As we entered the 2015/16 season, Griffiths had established himself as the first choice striker at the club.

His first goal of the season came against Icelandic Champions League qualifier opponents, Stjarnan FC, on their artificial surface in the far north west extremities of Europe. His first gome goal of the season, came with a penalty in the opening league game of the season, against Ross County.

The next two games saw a defensive performance, drawing 0-0 against FK Qarabag in Azerbaijan, followed by a 2-0 victory over Glasgow derby rivals Partick Thistle, Griffiths scoring in neither game.

But a lobbed through ball at Rugby Park on 12th August 2015, saw Griffiths one on one with the goalkeeper, slotting away his third goal of the season. The match ended 2-2.

The goal against Kilmarnock was the beginning of a 4 game scoring streak, with a brace against Malmo at Parkhead and 1 goal against both Dundee United and Inverness Caledonian Thistle.

Unfortunately for every man, woman and child connected with Celtic, the Champions League playoff 2nd leg in Sweden was a huge disappointment, with Griffiths being one of many who didn't contribute effectively that evening. This inevitably left a dark cloud over much of the season, which in a way, gives more credit to Griffiths for managing to continue his goalscoring form for such a sustained period of time.

Griffiths next found the net in consecutive domestic games against St.Johnstone in a 3-1 win, Aberdeen in a 2-1 loss and Dundee in an emphatic 6-0 win. The Dundee goal was the moment he hit double figures for the season.

He also featured in the first Europa League game in Amsterdam, facing Ajax, but was not amongst Celtic's 2 goalscorers that night.

Rested for the first League Cup game of the season against Raith Rovers, in which Celtic won 2-0, Griffiths next featured in a 0-0 home draw with fierce rivals Hearts. A Hibs fan growing up, this will have frustrated Griffiths as Hearts are one of the teams he enjoys scoring against the most.

A bright European performance saw him net again versus Fenerbahce, in a 2-2 draw with the Turkish club. He followed this up with a looping headed goal against Hamilton, meeting the end of a cross floated in from the right.

The following 2 games brought no goals for Griffiths despite appearing, a victory over Motherwell followed by the dreadful defeat in Norway, infamous for the Kris Commons incident.

A 5-0 home victory against Dundee United was where Griffiths next found the net, scoring a goal from a near impossible angle as he nipped the ball past the goalkeeper, dragged it right and slotted home for his 13th of the season.

His next goal against Hearts saw him display some wonderful footwork, receiving the ball around 30 yards out, before beating two men (nutmegging one of them) and opening his body up to place the ball in the far post, under pressure from the incoming Hearts defender.

For a guy who is 5'8'' (173cm), he manages to score a fair share of headed goals. This was shown against title challengers Aberdeen, as he scored his 15th of the season after leaping into the air and heading the ball home. A penalty in the second half of the same match saw him slot home his 16th.

The next time he hit the net would also result in a brace, scoring 2 in a 4-1 defeat of Ross County.

An injury prevented him from featuring between 30th November and 1st January, but on the 2nd January 2016, he returned to the team versus Partick Thistle, netting his 20th goal of the season. He had also scored in the last match he had featured in, against Inverness Caledonian Thistle on 29th November, so despite the injury, his 19th of the season versus Inverness was the start of a 5 game goal scoring streak for Leigh.

Despite approximately a month out with injury, the 40 goal mark by the end of the season is even more remarkable as he surely would have beaten that tally had he been available for the four games he missed in December 2015.

2 goals against Stranraer in the Scottish cup, 2 goals against Dundee United in the league and then a hat-trick against Hamilton in an 8-1 thrashing saw January become Griffiths' most fruitful month of the season.


Hat-trick hero


February also saw a 5 game goal scoring streak, with goals against Aberdeen, East Kilbride, Ross Country, Inverness Caledonian Thistle and Hamilton. This 5 game run took Griffiths to 33 goals for the season, an incredible return. This caused the support to speculate on how many he could achieve before the end of the campaign.

The overall performance of the Celtic squad at this part of the year wasn't at the level it should have been. Hindsight tells us that the constant speculation over Ronny Deila's future at the club had an affect on the players' performances. A 0-0 home draw with Dundee at the beginning of March saw a lot of fans vent their frustrations as this followed a 1-1 draw at Hamilton.

Celtic returned to winning ways with a 3-0 win against Greenock Morton in the Scottish cup, Griffiths finding the net to take him to 34. A goal at Firhill, took him to his 35th in a 2-1 win for the Champions.

Griffiths' next two games for Celtic brought a booking in each game, rather than goals and another frustrating 0-0 draw with Dundee would pass before he put 2 goals past Motherwell at Fir Park to take him to 37 for the season.

A poor Scottish Cup semi-final saw no goals for Leigh, but another disappointing draw, this time against Ross County, saw Griffiths net his 38th and Celtic's only goal of the day. It was at this stage that some fans voiced concerns over Deila's Celtic team's inability to get over the line, fearing that we could gift Aberdeen a title.

The following match v Hearts saw one of Griffiths' best goals of the season, as he latched on to a loose ball, nutmegging Danny Wilson and then slotting the ball into the far corner of the net with a sublime finish. This result all but secured the title for Celtic, with a 3-2 victory at Parkhead officially sealing it.

It was in Perth, on Wednesday 11th May, that Griffiths netted the 40th goal that would seal his own special place in Celtic's history. Taking control of a through ball in St.Johnstone's area, he darted past two Saints defenders before prodding the ball past the goalkeeper, before running to the Celtic fans holding up his fingers to indicate 'four' and a 'zero'.

40 goals. 40 reasons to celebrate. Leigh Griffiths will be unlikely to repeat this feat in his career, but if he does, we can only hope it's at Celtic. His consistent goalscoring was a bright light in a season of disappointing moments. Long may it continue.

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Teams scored against: Teams in chronological order from first goal scored against them.

Stjarnan - 1
Ross County - 5
Kilmarnock - 1
Inverness - 4
Malmo - 2
Dundee Utd - 4
St.Johnstone - 2
Aberdeen - 4
Dundee - 1
Fenerbahce - 1
Hamilton - 5
Hearts - 2
Partick Thistle - 2
Stranraer - 2
East Kilbride - 1
Greenock Morton - 1
Motherwell - 2

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All 40 goals:

[ame]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k7aR09dPj3M[/ame]