Leigh Griffiths demonstrated all the killer instincts of a striker to give Celtic a comfortable 4-1 win over Kilmarnock.
Comfortable wouldn’t have been used to describe the feelings of the home supporters in the opening hour of the match with relief the emotion as Kris Commons cancelled out the opening goal of the game from Darryl Westlake.
As Kilmarnock prepared for the re-start Griffiths replaced James Forrest with the complexion of the match transformed.
Five minutes later the former Hibs striker was carefully placing a header beyond Craig Samson from a Commons cross as Celtic took the lead and pushed themselves eight points ahead of Aberdeen.
With ten minutes left to play Griffiths drilled a ferocious low 20 yard shot into the net off the post from a Scott Brown pass before completing his hat-trick after being sent through one-on-one by a Virgil van Dijk through ball.
“He was fabulous,” Ronny Deila smiled. “You can’t do better than three goals and his contribution was excellent. He could be a kicker in American football, I think.
“He has improved a lot. He is training well and as a 24-hour athlete he is getting better and better – even though he eats cakes on the bench sometimes.
“But still it is just a start and we will continue working on small things to get him better and we will get even more goals.”
On Sunday Griffiths will turn his attention to Inverness Caley Thistle in the Scottish Cup as the treble comes into view for Deila’s side.
