Deila delight over ‘fabulous’ display by driven Griffiths
back into the team is to prove you deserve to play — like Leigh did today.
‘He was fabulous. You can’t do any better than three goals. His contribution was excellent. And his left foot? He could be a kicker in American football — he’d be very good, I think.
‘He’s improved a lot in my time here. He’s training well and as a 24-hour athlete he’s been getting better and better, even though he eats cakes on the bench sometimes.
‘But it’s just a start. He needs to keep working on small things and he’ll get even more goals.
‘He and John Guidetti played well together tonight and that’s something to think about when we play with two strikers.’
Asked if Griffiths is now a certain starter for Sunday, Deila said: ‘He played very well today, so we’ll see.’
Celtic came back from the loss of a goal early in the second half to crush Killie, Deila saying: ‘Defensively we were very good for the first 60 minutes. We had the ball all the time and they didn’t have a shot on target.
‘Our attacking play was too slow, too many square passes and we didn’t create anything. We said at the break we needed to take more risks and get behind them.
‘With Leigh coming on, we had a lot more movement and we opened them up and got our goals.’
Celtic could now win the title against closest rivals Aberdeen on May 10 — if both teams win all their games beforehand.
But Deila hopes his team won’t even need to beat the Dons in their own backyard to be crowned champions.
Last night’s victory took Celtic eight points clear with six games remaining. Should both teams win their remaining league games, an away win at Pittodrie would finish the race.
Yet Deila said: ‘ We could win it before Pittodrie. Hopefully we will. It’s possible — if they lose a game and we win, we can do that.
‘We want to win the title as early as possible and tonight was a very important win and we’re in to a very important week.
‘If you can get into the last five games eight points ahead, we have a very good chance. ‘
The Parkhead side have two Friday night f i xtures against Dundee and St Johnstone — and won’t play another game on Saturday at 3pm this season.
If Celtic wrap up the league flag, they will be presented with the trophy before their final home game against Inverness on May 24, the final day of the season.
Aberdeen will play St Johnstone in their final game, with the top six completed by a Dundee derby.
The final round of bottom- six ties could be held on the night of Friday, May 22.
The team which finishes 11th will be consigned to a two-leg play-off against t he winners of t he Championship play-off.
With St Mirren 10 points adrift at the f oot of the Premiership table with just 15 points left to play for, Motherwell will begin their quest to l eapfrog Ross County out of the play- off spot with a local Friday night derby against Hamilton.
The Fir Park side face Partick Thistle on the final day of the season, while St Mirren f ace Hamilton.
RONNY DEILA last night hailed ultimate impact sub Leigh Griffiths for his hat-trick performance in Celtic’s comeback Premiership win over Kilmarnock. And then the Parkhead manager said the striker’s desire to prove him wrong should serve as an example to any player left out of his starting XI. Griffiths took just 19 minutes to score a treble that takes Celtic ever closer to a clean sweep of domestic honours, staking an obvious claim to start in Sunday’s Scottish Cup semi-final against Inverness Caledonian Thistle at Hampden. Deila, asked if he thought the forward was trying to prove a point, said: ‘It looks like that — and that’s how you’re going to do it. That’s what I expect from the other subs as well. You can be angry but the way to get