LEIGH GRIFFTHS last night spoke of his frustration at being sidelined by illness, injury and the form of Moussa Dembele as he returned to Celtic's team and back among the goals.
Last season's top goalscorer got his tenth goalof an interrupted season in the 4-1 win over Partick Thistle, a win which puts his side eleven points ahead of Rangers with two games still in hand.
Griffiths has had to be patient and that paid off with a fine display, scoring one and setting up two for Stuart Armstrong, but he admitted that being out or on the bench has not been easy to accept.
"I have been itching to play for the last couple of weeks now," said Griffiths. "It's been frustrating to be injured and watching Moussa score. When I have got in I have tried to pour myself in the team and try to get that starting berth. Tonight I got handed the jersey and did myself no harm.
"I don't think it's about scoring, it's about my all-round play. I need to try and do what Moussa has over the last few weeks. I did that tonight and we will see what happens on Tuesday. It has been frustrating, from the moment I got injured and I've been unwell at times.
"I feel 100 per cent fit now and I have to get going."
"It would have been more goals if I hadn't got injured. I have no doubts about that. Now it's all about getting a run of games and, if I do that, I'll be confident I will score goals.
"Of course it's hard. But I have said it before when I've been asked these question, I can't fault Moussa for his efforts and goals. If the shoe was on the other foot, if I had scored lots of goals when he was injured and then he got into the team, I would asking questions."
Celtic simply swept aside Thistle and unless the number of games they have in hand prove a difficult obstacle, nobody is going to be in a position to stop six in a row.
"It's going to be hard for team to stop us," said Griffiths. "I'm not saying someone will but we take it game by game, we look to Tuesday against Hamilton, back on our home pitch and we want to make it count.
"Last season teams were coming to Celtic Park thinking they could get a result but now teams will be scared about coming to Parkhead with the way we are playing. We need to keep doing the exact same things."
Brendan Rodgers was delighted with the way his team were again so strong just three days after playing in the Champions League at Manchester City.
“Our intensity for a lot of the game was huge, given that we last played on Tuesday night," said the Celtic manager. "In the second half we were a lot more fluent and scored three really good goals.
“The confidence is high within the team. They are all respecting that we still have a lot of games to play in the league. We still have a lot of ambitions for the rest of the season.
“We understand we need to have intensity and pressure in every game. Leigh came in and had a great assist for the first two goals, then got a great goal himself."
Alan Archibald, Partick thistle's defeated manager, admitted: "We lost goals at key moments in the match and you can't do that against a team like Celtic."
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