NIFTY FIFTY
Record breaker Griffiths at the double to pass half-century
LEIGH GRIFFITHS last night burst through the half-century to put Celtic six points clear at the top of the Premiership.
The striker took his tally to 50 goals in 86 games after capitalising on an error by Gavin Gunning in the first half before taking just four second-half minutes to claim his 51st.
Jozo Simunovic had earlier claimed his first Celtic goal and his team’s second of the night before Simon Murray pulled one back for Mixu Paatelainen’s side.
Kris Commons later added a spectacular fourth as United were left rooted to the bottom of the table with just two wins all season.
Despite increased security surrounding the game, two flares were let off in the home section as the teams emerged before kick-off.
Meanwhile, Sportsmail understands Celtic have approached Manchester City with a view to taking their best youngsters on loan.
Striker Patrick Roberts is among a crop of young talent Celtic are monitoring, with City keen on the idea of the players being handed first-team experience ahead of returning next season.
Celtic have moved to ensure they will be first in the queue to snap up City’s best emerging talent. Roberts, 18, arrived at City from Fulham last summer and has made three first-team appearances so far.
He is highly rated by City chiefs, who will conduct a stringent process in deciding where their academy talent should go.
SOMETIMES a yellow card is worth it. The price to be paid for a moment of huge personal significance. Leigh Griffiths knew it was coming. He planned for it. The whole thing was pre-meditated from start to finish.
His 50th goal for Celtic was utterly instinctive. A moment of deadly finishing, capitalising on a Gavin Gunning slip to thump the ball through the legs of Dundee United goalkeeper Eiji Kawashima.
The booking which followed was anything but spontaneous. Ripping his Celtic jersey over his head, Griffiths showed a white training top emblazoned with a big, bold ‘50’ in huge block letters.
This was no hasty scrawl with a black marker pen. The quality was such that they could sell it today in the Celtic superstore.
And as referee Bobby Madden — as he had to in the joyless world of Scottish football — flashed the yellow card, Griffiths accepted his fate with a shrug.
When a man has made history, even a moment of Calvinist misery can’t wreck the moment.
How significant the feat actually is remains open to debate. A haul of 50 goals in 86 appearances is an outstanding return. After all the scepticism and doubt over his signing, Griffiths has done it in 60 starts — which is statistically the quickest of any Celtic striker in the modern era.
Charlie Nicholas was the previous best, doing it in 62 starts. That some of Griffiths’ goals were scored off the bench makes the whole business a little clouded and contrived.
This much we can say. Griffiths is becoming a Celtic striker of some substance. His record, dare anyone say it, is Larsson-esque.
The Player of the Year gongs will have to be wrenched from his clutches after he reached his landmark by handing Celtic the lead in the 21st minute, a Tom Rogic run prompting a disastrous Gunning slip on the wet surface and a spinning loose ball no striker could possibly resist. The last man United wanted it to fall to was Griffiths. What happened next was obvious.
By the 27th minute, Celtic were 2-0 ahead. In another personal landmark, Jozo Simunovic, the £3million summer signing from Dinamo Zagreb, scored his first goal for the club.
It was ridiculously easy. Stuart Armstrong, the former Dundee United player, was a constant menace to his former club. He won a free-kick close to the byeline after being bundled over by Ryan McGowan.
Kris Commons took it, flighting the ball into a crowded area where a completely unmarked Simunovic had all the time and space anyone could ask for to thump his header into the net.
At 2-0, it was natural to write United off. A fragile team shorn of confidence, the loss of one goal has killed them in recent weeks, never mind two. With top scorer Billy Mckay missing on compassionate grounds, it was natural to fear the worst for a team with just one win in 11 games under Mixu Paatelainen.
Any notion Celtic and their support had of coasting to a rout and a six-point lead at the top of the Premiership was disturbed, however, by a fightback.
John Souttar, watched by Celtic more than once, gave Ronny Deila food for thought when he surged from the centre of the pitch, running at a visiting defence missing the injured Dedryck Boyata.
The Scotland Under-21 man slid a finely weighted pass into Simon Murray, the little used striker from Arbroath taking one touch and poking the ball into the corner of the net past Craig Gordon for 2-1.
United suddenly had a hint of defiance about them. A pre-match flare fired in the home stand was idiotic considering last weekend’s events in Stranraer.
Quite simply, Paatelainen needed the pyrotechnics on the pitch. And Murray’s goal lit a well-timed fuse.
Just seconds before half-time, McGowan was inches away from poking an equaliser. Keeper Gordon got there first.
But United had a straw to clutch at. Something to cling to as the half-time whistle rang out.
Celtic? They had a chance to regroup and reassert themselves. They did so to savage effect, coming out of the traps for the second half like starving whippets.
The game was settled in a clinical passage of play in the 48th minute. One which perfectly summed up this kitten-weak United side.
The chance was there to draw level at one end when John Rankin flighted a fine ball over the head of Efe Ambrose. Murray was in on goal, drawing Gordon off his line.
He mustered a half-hearted claim for a penalty as the two came together. The claim was a nonsense and ref Madden rightly ignored it.
But even as United protested, more in hope than expectation, Celtic were accelerating up the pitch. Mikael Lustig took the ball off the toe of new boy Riku Riski on the edge of the Celtic area then made a lung-bursting overlapping run to take the ball from Rogic and cross into the United area.
Commons missed the first swing, but Griffiths — who else? — made no mistake with the second. As his right-foot shot nestled in the corner of the net, Kawashima and United were beaten. Their brief slither of resistance shot through.
It went to four with a goal of real quality in 56 minutes. Once again, the damage to United was painful and self-inflicted. Scott Fraser tried to dribble the ball clear in his own half and was pick-pocketed by Rogic. The ball was filtered left to Armstrong, a flighted cross producing a superb left foot bicycle kick from Commons for 4-1.
Thereafter the home team were spared utter, outright humiliation by benevolent assistant referees.
Griffiths was denied a hat-trick by an iffy offside flag. Commons also had a second goal chalked off despite Rankin playing him on.
The dodgy refereeing worked both ways. Paatelainen, a deeply frustrated, fulminating figure on the sidelines, came close to combustion when the ball clearly struck the arm of substitute James Forrest on the edge of the area. Chances are it was unintentional.
But for United, here was the proof that, when a team is down — and it’s edging closer by the week — the footballing Gods can be cruel.
Even when a sense of fight has been found in their performance, the results continue to plumb new depths.
They have won just twice in 22 Premiership games so far this season. By any estimations, that is utterly ruinous form and they sit 11 points behind Kilmarnock in the race to avoid the drop.
Paatelainen has repeatedly called into question the spirit of his team since taking charge in October. But there was enough evidence here last night that they do have the requisite fight and stomach for the scrap that lies ahead over the next few months.
But with 16 games left, United need to win eight to have any realistic chance of avoiding relegation. They are running out of time. And of chances.