NOW LEIGH IS A GOOD BHOY

I look back and think it was sheer stupidity to go to the pub that day. But it’s one of the things I have learned from Even out on the street, I still get abuse when I walk with my kids. I just have to block that out and ignore it

THE idea was to have a lost day out with the boys. Looking back on it now, Leigh Griffiths believe sit was the moment he finally found himself.

Like an iron filing to a magnet, the Edinburgh derby at Tynecastle drew the player back to his roots at the end of March 2014.

Even before he had set foot in the visitors’ end, though, he hadn’t so much as crossed the line as long-jumped over it.

Filmed during a pre-match get-together with his fellow Hibs fans singing an offensive song about former Hearts favourite Rudi Skacel, Griffiths’ penchant for finding himself neck-deep in trouble reached a whole new level; a heavy fine by Celtic was followed by a criminal charge for which he was later admonished.

For many, it was the point of no return for the player at the top level. The rationale was clear — without the necessary application, even a formidable natural talent like his could not prosper.

Almost two years on, however, the absolute last chance the player was granted has been repaid and then some. Despite failing to immediately catch manager Ronny Deila’s eye, the player scored 20 goals for Celtic last season. Already this term, he has 27.

The mischievous glint in the eye is still there but Griffiths’ exemplary behaviour over the past year suggests he is now practised in the art of counting to 10.

‘It was just stupid to go to the pub in the first place,’ he reflected. ‘ When I woke up that morning, the last thing I wanted to do was go there. I just wanted to go to the game and watch Hibs winning it — but that didn’t happen.

‘What happened that day is well forgotten about in my mind, but it has been well documented. It’s things like that I look back on and say to myself: “What were you doing? Why did you do that?” It was sheer stupidity but it is one of the things I’ve learned from.’

The 25-year- old striker now hardly recognises the figure in the grainy recording.

However, he is now about to completely disown himself. Hibernian remains a big part of him. Occasionally, when the time and the venue is right, he will try to watch them in the flesh but common sense is now at the centre of every decision he makes.

‘Not at an Edinburgh derby,’ he grinned. ‘I’m always asking if I can be hidden away in a TV studio or something.

‘The club (Celtic) tells me not to go to Ibrox or Tynecastle, but they don’t mind me going to the Hibs home games, as long as I’m sitting in the directors’ box and the players’ lounge. It’s at the away games that people try to antagonise me.’

Famously described by his Hibs manager Pat Fenlon as a ‘ pain in the a***’, Griffiths seemed contractually obliged to take a year off the lifespan of the Dubliner for each one of t he 28 goals he hit in 2012-13.

An unfortunate habit of making gestures towards opposing fans seemed to sum up how avoidable so much of the bother was.

These days, even a Sunday stroll in Edinburgh is undertaken with his lips metaphorically stitched closed.

‘You can’t react,’ he said. ‘ Even out on the streets, I am still getting abuse when I walk with my kids but I just blank it out and try to ignore it. ‘It is my wee boy who now tries to give it back — I am the one telling him off! It is one of the things I have to block out and ignore.’ Where would Griffiths be if t he penny had not belatedly dropped? Playing at a decent level somewhere perhaps, but certainly not at Celtic and absolutely not as the country’s most feared striker. Griffiths (left), who was promoting Celtic’s league game against St Johnstone this afternoon, has seen how far even the fiercely talented can fall if they don’t engage the grey matter.

‘I used to play against a guy called Darren Flynn, and Tam Smith (former Hutchison Vale manager) used to say that he was the guy we had to mark because he could score a goal out of nothing,’ he recalled.

‘If Flynn had the right attitude, he could have gone far in the game but he wanted to go out every weekend and get p*****.’

Given Gr if fiths’ story of redemption, perhaps we should not rush to judgment in the case of Anthony Stokes.

The similarities between the pair are striking. Both are prodigiously talented but common sense has not always walked hand in hand with them away from the training ground.

At 27, the penny should have dropped with Stokes long before he took to social media to express his dismay at being taken to Inverness late last year and then left sitting in the stand.

However, Deila believes the Irishman can do enough in Leith to carve out a healthy future for himself at Celtic.

From both a personal and a professional point of view, Griffiths hopes that comes to pass. ‘Anthony has great ability,’ he added. ‘He’ll go to Hibs, do well and, hopefully, get his career back on track.’

Can he do enough to get the Leith club up to the top flight?

‘It’s hard to say,’ Griffiths replied. ‘One player doesn’t make a team and he has to bed into what Alan Stubbs is doing. Ultimately, he has to perform.

‘In saying that, Rangers are five points clear at the top of the league and every time they step on to the pitch they don’t look like they are going to be beaten.’

Martyn Waghorn’s 27 goals have had much to do with that. Already the respective Old Firm strikers look to be locked in a two-way battle for the individual awards at the end of the season.

Griffiths maintains scoring the three goals he requires to reach the 30-mark is the only thing in his mind right now, although he is aware that Henrik Larsson’s 53-goal tally from 15 seasons back may not be beyond him.

Even if he did surpass that total, he would not be penning any acceptance speeches just yet.

‘The most I’ve scored ever, going back to when I was a youngster, is 117,’ he said laughing.

‘That was in my first season with Leith Athletic. I think I got nine in one game against Edinburgh City. I was 11 at the time and they were probably all with my left foot! Was I Player of the Year that season? I wasn’t, actually.

‘It was a boy called Lee Currie. Funnily enough, he was the gaffer’s son!’

The international double-header with Czech Republic and Denmark in March should allow Griffiths to add to the modest six Scotland caps he has to date.

The striker was a BBC Sportscene studio guest last week as Stuart McCall, one of the national team coaches, stated that he would be an automatic pick if there were ‘a game tomorrow’.

In the past, there would be concern about Griffiths becoming embroiled in some kind of bother in the interim — but not now.