THERE is no question that Garry O’Connor and Derek Riordan were outstanding talents at the outset of their careers with Hibs. But role models for impressionable kids? Not so much.

Both O’Connor and Riordan, despite winning lucrative moves to bigger clubs and being capped by Scotland, failed to fulfil their vast potential due to a questionable commitment to their profession.

So when Leigh Griffiths, the Celtic striker whose ill-advised off-field antics have often overshadowed his exploits on the park, reveals they were the players he looked up to early on in his career it would seem to explain a lot.

Yet, Griffiths, who has been in the best goalscoring form of his life this season and was this week named the Scottish Football Writers’ Association Player of the Year for a second time, stressed that trying to emulate the fabled Hibs frontline had enabled him to reach such a high level.

Asked who his mentors had been starting out, he said: “You’re going to laugh at this, but it was Derek Riordan and Garry O’Connor. But just on the park!

“What they did for Hibs was magical. Growing up as a Hibs fan you would go and support the team and see these two guys up front. I wanted to be just like them and play for Hibs. I managed to play with Garry in my first season there.

“I still remember the first training session when I walked in and saw him sitting there in the corner. He was one of the first guys to walk up to me and welcome me to the club. That felt like a bit of a whirlwind because these were guys who I looked up to when I was younger.

"Both of them were goalscorers. Derek was maybe more noted for his long-range strikes than his tap-ins. But Garry was a fox in the box when he was at Hibs. He got his moves and rightly so. When I was at Hibs, his finishing in training was still second to none.

"The long-range strikes are the ones that get talked about. But for me, as a striker, I personally prefer the two-yard tap-ins. They all count, regardless of whether it is 35 yards or two yards. It’s all about goals.”

Griffiths has never tried to hide his affection for his boyhood heroes Hibs and is hoping the Easter Road club can come through the play-offs and secure a place in the Ladbrokes Premiership alongside Celtic next season.

"It would be nice,” he said. “It isn’t going to be easy for them, but hopefully they can do the job. We’ve lost a big club in Dundee United and, potentially, we could lose another big club in Kilmarnock. But if Hibs or Falkirk do come up, that’s another big one and can only benefit the top tier.”

He revealed, though, that he wouldn't be attending the William Hill Scottish Cup final between his former club and Rangers at Hampden on Saturday week. “I’m happy to sit in the house and watch it,” he said. “I might go on holiday and sit in the bar and watch it there - just as long as I’m not in trouble!”

Griffiths, meanwhile, has stressed that he is happy to be involved in Scotland’s friendly matches against Italy in Malta at the end of May and France in Metz in June. “I’m still available,” he said. “The games we have coming up are interesting against top-class opposition. Both are going to the Euros.

“France and Italy are excellent teams and you want to go and prove yourself against the best. They are two top nations and it’ll be a good test for us going into the qualifying campaign in September.

“If I am selected, I will be delighted, but if the manager phones and says that I have to rest, then I’ll have no qualms about that. I’ll go away, enjoy my break, keep on top of my fitness and coming back raring to go for the new season.”

Griffiths added: “It’s flip of a coin. You want to put in as many good performances as you can and score as many goals as you can, but, at the same time, you need a rest for the new season up. At Celtic, you don’t get as much rest as other teams with the European campaign coming up. But you want to stay on top of your fitness.

“The Scotland games finish on June 4 and we’re back at Celtic on June 24 or 25, so it’s maybe three weeks. That’s time to recharge your batteries, enjoy your break and return ready.”

Griffiths has netted 39 goals in all competitions this season and has the opportunity to break through the 40 goal barrier in Celtic’s penultimate game of the 2015/16 campaign against St. Johnstone in Perth this evening.

It will be the 25-year-old’s final appearance of the season as he is suspended for Ronny Deila’s final match in charge against Motherwell at Celtic Park on Sunday and he intends to take full advantage of it.

“I’m disappointed that I’m suspended this weekend,” he said. “But I have one more game to hit that mark and I hope it comes against St Johnstone. Getting to 40 goals would be the perfect way to round-off the club season."