Celtic great Davie Hay has thrown the gauntlet down to Leigh Griffiths as he challenged him to get himself in the Scotland team more regularly.
Hay couldn’t speak highly enough of the Hoops striker’s courage after being given a horrific role by Steve Clarke on Thursday night.
With Scotland still tied at 1-1 with Serbia heading into the final few minutes of extra-time, Scots boss Clarke threw Griffiths into the game so that he could take a penalty in the shootout.
Had he missed, he likely would’ve been crucified by the media and Scotland fans alike. Thankfully, that wasn’t to be the case, as Griff hammered home his penalty and proved his doubters wrong once again to help send Scotland to Euro 2020. And it’s fair to say that Hay was delighted for the Celtic star.
As quoted by the Scottish Sun, Hay said: “Griffiths showed some amount of bottle on Thursday to step up and take that first penalty. The first one and the last one are so important and for a guy who has struggled in recent seasons, I thought it showed a lot of courage.
“If he wants to be in there, he needs to be doing it for Celtic week in, week out. It is to Celtic’s benefit as much as his own that he shows the talent he is capable of now on a consistent basis.”
Dykes not going anywhere, but McBurnie nowhere near Griffiths’ level
I’ve always been one who’s stated that Griffiths is Scotland’s best striker, regardless of who’s available. And even though Dykes has performed heroically in recent times, that’s still the case as far as I’m concerned.
However, Clarke has an outlet in the former Livingston star that he won’t be letting go anytime soon. It’s been a long-time since Scotland have had a physical target man to aim for in the final third. Outside of Steven Fletcher, they’ve been rarities.
Over time, Griffiths can still prove that he’s better than Dykes if he knuckles down and does the business with Celtic in the coming months. But there should be absolutely no question that he’s far better than Oli McBurnie these days.
Once again, McBurnie got on ahead of Griffiths in Serbia and produced absolutely nothing. Granted, he slotted away his penalty expertly, and fair play to him for that, but his performances for the national team have been bang average – and that’s being generous.
Right now there’s a big battle on Griff’s hands. He now has a Euro 2020 spot to fight for, and he won’t be shy of strikers who will be breaking their backs to try and get back into Steve Clarke’s thoughts ahead of the summer.
Of course, the only way he’ll win that battle is if he’s undroppable from Neil Lennon’s perspective and helps shoot Celtic to 1o-in-a-row. No pressure then, Griff.
In other news, one of Celtic’s most talented stars “wasn’t fitting in” when he first signed, according to a lifelong pal.
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