Griffiths knows the score

Football columnist

Sunday 10 March 2013

H indsight and humility often go together so that's why I'm holding my hands up to say Leigh Griffiths is proving me wrong with his match-winning performances at Hibernian this season.

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By Billy Dodds

He always had ability – 34 goals in 62 games for Dundee tells you that – but for whatever reason Gordon Chisholm and myself couldn't really get him playing when we were at Dens Park. He always said to me 'I am a striker and that is it, end of story'. To be fair, I never told him he couldn't be. In fact, I wanted to play Griffiths right up front, exactly the way Pat Fenlon is deploying him at Easter Road now, but he wasn't really doing it. He was drifting wide, and his effect on games was minimal.

So I tried to tell him that with his pace he could end up like a true winger such as Neil McCann and get goals that way, but he didn't fancy that. He phoned his agent, Darren Jackson, and complained that I was trying to get him to play wide left, which wasn't the case. All I was doing was trying to get the best out of him. We had loads of strikers at the time, Colin McMenamin, Sean Higgins, Mickael Antoine-Curier – who didn't get on with Griffiths, so it was a struggle to play them together – then we got David Witteveen in from Hearts, who did a bang-up job until he got injured. Off-field factors may also have played a part, but we just could not get him motoring, although admittedly we weren't playing well as a team, and things were leaking out in the press that Dundee was in a bit of a tailspin. I used to speak to him before every game, I tried to get in his head. Looking back, I was probably a bit too intense. We all know about his misdemeanours off the pitch and too many people talk about them – we should be talking more about what he does on the pitch. His move to Wolves may not have worked out, but the fact he is back on loan at his hometown club a couple of years older and maybe a couple of years wiser has helped his game come together. Fenlon seems to be getting him at a good time of his life and it is working well for both parties. He is joint top of the SPL goal charts with 19 strikes and doing things he wasn't doing at Dundee or Wolves, which is playing right up front and getting in-the-box goals. Not just tap-ins, but six-yard, 10-yard finishes. Because for the amount of goals he has previously scored, it is a testament to the player that something like 95% of them are from outside of the box. He is very unlucky not to be in the Scotland squad, especially with Gordon Strachan watching his one-man demolition job against Kilmarnock last weekend. He must have been close, but if he keeps on doing what he is doing, there is no doubt he has the ability to get there. Leigh had a tough upbringing, but staying out of trouble off the park is something he has to do because, in truth, he should be higher up the football ladder with his ability. Wolves still don't appear to want him, despite their own perilous predicament in the Championship. So his career is still at a crossroads. Does he sign long-term for Hibernian or does he have a higher ambition? You could look at Chris Maguire or David Goodwillie for examples of Scottish talents that have failed to blossom down south, but for me the best comparison is closer to home – do not end up like Derek Riordan. He has to look and think 'I am not going down that road'. The only thing that will stop Leigh Griffiths's progress now is off-field stuff, because everything he is doing on the field is terrific. He is just part of the reason why I can see today's Edinburgh derby being the most open for years. Edinburgh derbies always tend to be tight, but Gary Locke has Hearts playing 4-4-2, which the Hearts punters have been crying out for, and Hibs will be full of confidence after booking their William Hill Scottish Cup semi-final place against Falkirk. How will it pan out? Maybe a score draw – and there haven't been too many of them in this fixture recently. I DON'T like kicking a club when it is down, but John Yorkston has been conspicuous by his absence amid the chaos at Dunfermline. He effectively called me a liar when I said Jim McIntyre had been forced to serve a writ to get his redundancy money, but I stood by my words and never heard anything. But now that Gavin Masterton is getting slaughtered for leaving the club in such a mess, and Jim Leishman is taking hold of the reins and trying to help them survive, their chairman has fallen strangely silent.

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Griffiths knows the score

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