ROAD TO RUSSIA
Griffiths loves being the Tartan Army’s new hero after free-kick masterclass against the English
LEIGH GRIFFITHS has an easy way of cheering himself up if he gets down in the dumps.
He just whacks in the DVD of his two fantastic free-kicks for Scotland against England and that always seems to do the trick.
That was the day Griffiths opened his international scoring account and a nation took the hitman to their hearts when the Celtic hitman floated two exquisite set-pieces past England No.1 Joe Hart.
Griffiths is revelling in his newfound hero status and said: “I couldn’t tell you how many times I’ve watched my goals against England.
“Whenever I’m in a bad mood, coming home from training or after a game or whatever, I’ll put that on and it’ll make me smile.
“It means a lot to me but it wasn’t just that, it was the magnitude of the game. To score two goals against anybody for your country would be good but to do it against the Auld Enemy was magic.
“It’s something I will never forget and people do keep talking about it – that’s good!
“Regardless of what club you support, any Scotland fan is going to be happy for you scoring for their country.
“They’re always complimentary about how I played in that game and how those free-kicks went in.”
It took Griffiths 13 games to break his international duck. But the 27-year-old possesses a gallus streak which makes him believe he will score every time he takes to the field.
He insists it’s not about proving people wrong but making people appreciate the talent that is right under their nose.
Griffiths said: “I believe I’ll score every time I go on the pitch no matter who I’m playing against.
“It doesn’t make a difference to me who the opposition is, if a chance falls to me within 20, 25 yards I’m having a shot at goal and if it goes in it goes in.
“If not I’ll wait for another chance. You might not get many chances so you try to make the first one count.
“First and foremost it’s about the team you play for ,whether it’s Celtic or Scotland, and it’s about getting the three points or getting through to the next round.
“I might have thought I wasn’t the Scotland manager’s type of player if I was left out of a number of squads in succession. The fact I’m always in squads and always get an opportunity to play means I must be doing something right.
“Guys like Steven Fletcher and Chris Martin have done themselves justice by starting games and scoring goals. “That is what I had to start doing. “It’s not about proving people wrong, it’s about making folk just open their eyes and seeing what they’ve got in front of them.
“For the first six months under Ronny Deila when he was the manager at Celtic he wasn’t happy with the way things were going and when he gave me a chance I proved myself.
“It was exactly the same the second season when he brought Nadir Ciftci in and I had to do it all again.
“Then people said, ‘You’ll have to prove yourself under Brendan Rodgers’. But people forget that I started the season well and if I’d never got injured then Moussa Dembele would have been kept out of the team for longer.
“I couldn’t fault Moussa’s contribution after I got injured and it was harder for me to get in.
“I’ve started the season well this season and hopefully that continues without any injuries. That’s my mentality.
“People don’t give me a chance but I know when I get a chance I’ll show what I can do because I’m good enough.
“I know myself that I’m good enough and when you speak to my teammates they always say I’m good enough. I’ve never had a manager say I wasn’t good enough.
“So I’m always on the training pitch when I’m fit, trying to work on my weaknesses and trying to get better.
“You’ve seen over the last 18 months in that period working with the Celtic manager that my game has come on leaps and bounds.”
Despite that wonderful double against England, Griffiths joked he is still tortured by a sitter against Slovenia at Hampden when he hit the bar from pointblank range.
He said: “I played well against Slovenia at home, albeit I missed one of the worst chances in my life.
“After my miss against Slovenia, when I hit the bar I thought, ‘Is this ever going to happen?’ Then I hit the post two minutes later and thought, ‘Well it’s definitely not meant to be’.
“The England game obviously speaks for itself. You could see the joy on my face when I scored the first and the second one was even better.”
Griffiths is expected to lead the line in Vilnius tomorrow against Lithuania. Five other Celts are also in contention and he said: “The manager could play us all. We’re all playing well and playing with confidence but that’s not my decision to make – that’s down to the manager.
“It worked well against Slovenia and if it happens we will try to replicate what we do with Celtic for the national team. We play this system with Celtic and it feels kinda the same here.
“Although we have goals all over the pitch at Celtic, nine times out of 10 the onus is on the striker to get goals.
“It’s the same for the Scotland squad. We have goals from all over the park but the striker gets the most attention and if that’s on me then I will take it on my shoulders and try to put the ball in the net.” LAND... COME ON SCOTLAND... COME ON SCOTLAND... COME ON SCOTLAND... COME ON SCOTLAND... COME ON SCOTLAND... COME ON SCOTLAND... COME ON SCOTLAND... COME ON SCOTLAND... COME ON SCOTLAND... COME ON
ANTHONY HAGGERTY