‘Griffiths can fire Scots to Euros’

LEIGH GRIFFITHS came back to haunt Craig Brown once, but the former Scotland boss says he is the man to realise his dreams of seeing his country in a major tournament once more.

Brown came close to landing Griffiths on loan from Wolverhampton Wanderers when he was Aberdeen manager, and missing out on the forward would prove to be costly to the Pittodrie side down the line.

Far from holding a grudge though, Brown remains a massive fan of the Celtic striker, and he is hoping he will be included in Steve Clarke’s

Scotland squad

2020 play-offs.

“He’s a scorer,” Brown said. “He has that thing that the other strikers we have at the moment probably don’t, and I wouldn’t hesitate to have him in the squad.

“I actually think his attitude has changed for the better. I’ve met him at one or two dinners, and he couldn’t have been more courteous or polite. I’m Mr Brown, and when I tried to tell him to call me Craig, he wouldn’t have it.

“And yet, you saw some of the things he would do on the pitch and you would wonder if he

for

the Euro

was a bit of a Jekyll and Hyde character.

“But I think he is a player of undoubted goalscoring ability. If you’ve got him through the middle and you put the ball into the penalty box, then you’ve got chances of scoring.

“I was interested in bringing him to Aberdeen on loan when I was there, and we nearly had him, too. The wages were a stumbling block.

“We were to regret it, because he ended up at Hibs and we got them in the semi-finals of the cup. And who scored the winner? Leigh Griffiths. Sod’s law.

“If we got him, we wouldn’t have lost that game. It was an offside goal mind you, but that was us beaten 2-1. That was probably my biggest heartache in football, that the guy I was going to sign came back to haunt me.

“The only question is, if Leigh Griffiths is on the field for you, is he likely to score? And the answer is yes.”

Brown points to Griffiths’ ability to finish with one touch as a sure-fire sign of a top-level striker.

“I’m a statistics guy and everybody slags me for it, but four out of five goals at the top