Sunday Mail (UK)

Griff has nose for goal and wind-ups

- Gordon Waddell

Leigh Griffiths wound up Rangers fans with his nose for trouble – and also earned a rocket from Celtic boss Brendan Rodgers for a barge on Josh Windass.

The Scotland striker grabbed the clincher in his side’s 2- 0 win at Ibrox but caused more controvers­y.

He cleaned his hand on an Ibrox corner f lag seconds af ter wiping his beak and also appeared to blow his nose into part of a fan tifo display.

But the frontman revealed he managed to incur his manager’s wrath for an

incident where he naughtily knocked Windass into the hoardings.

Griffiths said: “The manager has been calm most of the time he has been here – that’s one of the few times he has lost it!

“It wasn’t great to see so hopefully I can stay on his good side now.”

The striker, who upset Gers fans last season by tieing a scarf to a goalpost, added: “The message was just to stay calm.

“At the start of the second half tempers were getting a little bit frayed so he just told me to keep the head and concentrat­e on my football.”

Griffiths’ goal came less than 10 minutes later – and Celtic were on easy street from there.

Rodgers said: “It’s always that type of game. We have seen it over many years you can get a bit carried away but it’s not where I ask them to be.

“In the heat of the battle you have to stay calm. You don’t want to get a stupid booking.

“Naturally players sometimes get car r ied away but his overal l performanc­e was outstandin­g.”

Griffiths added: “We controlled the game from start to finish.

“Nil-nil was not a bad scoreline to go in with at half-time and we knew going into the second half our legs would be better than theirs.”

 ??  ?? BOGEYMAN Griffiths
BOGEYMAN Griffiths

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