Griffiths must bide his time for number one role

Although Leigh Griffiths is the only Celtic striker to score this season in any competition, the 24-year-old still isn’t guaranteed a starting place against Malmo on Wednesday.

The Scot bagged his fourth goal of the season on Sunday to open the scoring for Celtic in a game they dominated for the first 70 minutes. Griffiths is out to prove to manager Ronny Deila that he should be the first-choice striker for the Hoops.

Summer signing Nadir Ciftci remains suspended from domestic action for another two games for an incident that occurred while he was at Dundee United. The 23-year-old is still available for the crucial two-legged tie against Malmo and  has started all four Champions League qualifiers ahead of Griffiths so far but has failed to get on the scoresheet.

As reported by the Scotsman, Griffiths said: “You never know if I will get the nod against Malmo.”

I have done my chances no harm with scoring again. It’s all about what the manager thinks on Wednesday afternoon when he names the team. If I am not in it I will give my full support to Nadir. He will no doubt do a job for the team and I’ll be ready if I am needed to come on.

It’s disappointing when you score a goal and the big games come around and you are on the bench. I just have to bide my time. If I am involved, then great. If not, I will support Nadir.

Griffiths also added that Celtic can’t afford to be complacent like they were recently when they face Malmo.

It’s a warning,” said Griffiths. “If we play like that in the Champions League we will be severely punished.

We played really well but we gave away a couple of sloppy goals at the end that by our standards were very poor. It is something we will look at in training during the week and make sure we sort it for Wednesday.

At 4-0 up we were looking at going on and winning five or six. But credit to Inverness. They came back at us in the last half an hour.

New signing Scott Allan was revealed at Celtic Park on Saturday, but inside the changing room there was no hiding from his ties to Rangers.

He wasn’t even in the dressing-room door and Charlie Mulgrew was winding him up!” said Griffiths. “It will remain behind closed doors but it was great banter from the likes of Charlie and Scott Brown. It was good fun but I am sure Scott will take it in his stride.

It doesn’t matter if you support Rangers or East Stirling. As soon as you pull on that Celtic jersey, the fans will take to you straight away.