LEIGH GRIFFITHS says that Scott Brown has proved his critics wrong and that there was no chance of Ismaila Soro starting ahead of the Celtic captain in the Scottish Cup Final.

Brown turned in a vintage performance at Hampden as Celtic eventually shook off a dogged Hearts side, and Griffiths says his skipper was pivotal to overcoming that challenge and securing a quadruple Treble.

Soro had started the wins over Lille and Kilmarnock which preceded the final on Sunday and impressed in the heart of midfield, but Griffiths says that Brown’s name has to be the first one on manager Neil Lennon’s teamsheet when it comes to the big occasion.

“He’s had a little bit of stick,” Griffiths said. “But I don’t think it’s been justified.

“He’s a serial winner, a born leader, he’s in that dressing room every single day, driving the boys on, making sure they’re 100 per cent at it.

“And I’ve seen comments about would he start, wouldn’t he start, would Soro get a start in the cup final?

“The performance he put in against Hearts was unbelievable. He was our leader.

“If you look back on all the Scottish Cup finals we’ve played, he’s probably been Man of the Match in about 75 per cent of them.

“That is exactly what you need from your captain. He’s a born leader, a born winner – and I’m delighted that he’s my captain.

“I think [the criticism] spurs him on. I think he actually buzzes over that.

“Listen, he’s getting older so I think he maybe needs to be more wise about what games he plays now. I think the gaffer has realised that now, as well. But the big games, he needs to play in those for us. In my opinion, anyway.

“You saw again at Hampden, he bossed a Scottish Cup final, played a big part in my goal – and I was delighted to see him get his hands on the trophy again.

“It was great to be going there with him. He’s a huge influence.”

Griffiths could scarcely believe that Brown got his head on the end of a corner to set up his goal at Hampden in extra-time, but he says it is testament to the 35-year-old’s will to win as well as his fitness.

“I was wondering what the hell he was doing in the box!” he said. “He’s normally way back.

“Listen, all the accolades he gets, they’re all earned – all totally justified.”

Celtic will be hoping that the accomplishment of securing that fourth successive Treble will act as a spur for the rest of the league campaign as they look to overhaul the commanding 16-point lead that Rangers have accrued at the top of the table.

Griffiths hopes that it will also lift some of the negativity which has been hanging over Celtic for the last couple of months, admitting that he was devastated to see the recent protests held by supporters outside their own stadium, accusing those fans of having short memories.

“Of course it hurts us, as players, to see fans outside of Celtic Park protesting,” he said. “Because it wasn’t that long ago that those fans were cheering us on for winning the treble Treble.

“Yeah, results this season haven’t been great. But we have to stick with it. The league campaign is a marathon, not a sprint.

“The Europa League was disappointing, of course, but the main focus is still to make sure we’re in that title race. Of course we can win the league. We do that by staying focused on every game and taking maximum points. That starts on Wednesday night, on Ross County.

“We’ll be looking for a bit of revenge against them because they put us out of the Betfred Cup.

“We’re looking forward to that. The celebrations after Hampden were brief – and we got focused on the next game.”

As well as hosting Ross County tomorrow night, Celtic travel to face Hamilton on Boxing Day and then welcome Dundee United to Celtic Park before the year is out, and Griffiths says that securing maximum points from those matches is crucial with the New Year trip to Ibrox on the horizon.

He has no doubts though that his teammates can dig deep and once again show that they have the mental strength to grind out the results they need to put pressure on Rangers going into that Old Firm fixture.

“You need that winning mentality, especially when performances haven’t been great,” he said.

“The comments and stick we’ve been taking has been OTT at times. But hopefully that’s us turned the corner.

“We’ve got a good run of games now where, hopefully, we should be picking up three points from all of them. We know teams will come and make it hard for us. So we need to be in the right frame of mind.

“Our job is to go and win these games between now and the end of the month – and that sets us up nicely for the big one in January.

“We are targeting nine out of nine points from those games. They’re fixtures we look at and know we should be winning. Performances recently might make people think differently. But we’ll be ready.

“Ross County will make it hard and try to do the double over us. Our aim is to get back to work and get those three points.”