SCORING goals became a problem, of sorts, for a team last season which won its third Treble in a row.

It’s ridiculous, of course, to criticise but Celtic for a good part of yet another hugely successful season won a lot of games 1-0 and even when things clicked, the goals did not flow. Things have changed.

Neil Lennon was determined to make his team exciting, one which could find the net from anywhere on the field and no matter how a game was going. So far, so excellent.

Scott Brown believes a limited number of goalscorers was a problem. That and the fact teams had worked out the 4-2-3-1 Brendan Rodgers favours, a system Lennon didn’t dare tinker with.

With a tricky away tie at Cluj coming up, the Scottish champions head to Romania confident of getting an away goal, something which wasn’t the case in previous season. Indeed, after their 7-0 win over St Johnstone and five away goals in total collected from the previous two qualifiers, it would be a surprise if one of Celtic’s many threats failed to find the target.

Brown said: “We relied a lot on Odsonne (Edouard) to score our goals, although Scott Sinclair and James Forrest also chipped in. It was all about the wingers and the lone striker but now that Griff is back and Bayo is also on the mend we have three strikers we can use and that helps us play in a more attacking formation.

“The gaffer likes us getting the ball into the penalty area nice and early and, to be fair, there’s no-one better in the business to have there than Leigh and Odsonne.

“Everyone used to know that we’d play with two wide men, a lone striker and either one or two No.10s but we’ve tried to chop and change so that we’re not one-dimensional all the time – not that I think we were before.

“A lot of other teams would try the low block against us and try to counter-attack us but we had enough in defence to deal with most of them. That wasn’t the problem, though; the goals had just dried up, although we still managed to win the title and the Scottish Cup.

“Odsonne is still only 21 but he’s been brilliant for us and he’s also good in the dressing room. On the pitch he works at closing people down, his hold-up play is important and he’s a natural finisher as well.

“With Leigh available again and Ryan Christie making those runs in behind and creating space for others, that’s also helped him.”

The return of Griffiths has been huge for Celtic. As a starter of substitute, this is one striker who always gets chances, and usually takes them.

Brown is both fan and friend of is fellow east coaster. The skipper is delighted to see his pal looking, feeling and playing well.

The Celtic captain said: “Leigh has been great since he’s come back in. He’s been working hard and he needs to keep pushing because he’s not getting any younger – he just told me he’s going to be 29 next month!

“Leigh’s one of the good guys in the dressing room; everyone can have a bit of banter with him because he has that in his locker as well but the main thing is to have him back on the pitch and scoring goals, which is what he loves and does best.

“We’ve tickled our formation a little so that we can have both Leigh and Odsonne up front because we know how deadly they can be in the box. For us, it’s about their work-rate – they need to show that they can function as a partnership and they’ve done that so far but they have to keep that ticking over.

“It’s given us the option to play with two up front, domestically and in Europe.”

Nobody has played more games in Europe for Celtic than Brown and he’s desperate to add to his many memories, good and bad, by beating Cluj at the stage when last season, AEK Athens ended the club’s Champions League hopes.

Brown said: “Getting to the Champions League is like winning a trophy for us. The manager calls it the fourth trophy of the season. Everyone knows how hard it is, you are up against top quality sides in the qualifiers.

“We have terrific home advantage and our 60,000 fans make this a very intimidating place. The away leg first is always best. I always prefer home advantage in the second game. If you go there and come back with a result, you know you are coming back to your own fans.

“But you need to go away from home as well. We’ve had two good results so far but we need to keep improving. We’ve got the Champions League, the league starting and the Betfed Cup as well. The games as going to be coming thick and fast.”