Griffiths silenced by Mulgrew

Charlie Mulgrew strolled through the Scottish Cup Final despite the threat of the much hyped Leigh Griffiths.

The Hibs striker had only one chance in the game before being substituted late in the match having picked up a yellow card for a late challenge on Mulgrew.

Last season’s player of the year has been fielded in a variety of positions this season but looked perfectly at home alongside Kelvin Wilson in the centre of the Celtic defence.

Fraser Forster made one outstanding save from Eoin Doyle early in the match but apart from that it was a relatively trouble free day at Hampden for the Celtic defence.

“I found out I’d be playing centre-half about an hour-and-a-half before the match,” Mulgrew revealed.

“It’s somewhere I’ve played a lot, especially last year. I was happy to be involved in a Cup final, to get a clean sheet and to win the game. I don’t know what the manager’s thinking was in the lead up, you just prepare yourself to be ready for any scenario.

“We’d obviously played against Griffiths before. We knew what his strengths were and that he can score goals, so it was up to us to match that.

“More importantly, the onus was on us to win the game and score goals. We’ve got really good players up top and at the back.

“We managed to keep them quiet and score goals ourselves. I’ve scored 11 goals this year after scoring nine last year.

“I’ve also learned to play another position, after playing a lot in central midfield. It’s been a good season all round.”

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