ON February 22, 2014, Celtic overcame Hearts 2-0 at Tynecastle. The result itself reflected the Hoops’ domestic dominance at the time – the win saw them climb 24 points clear at the top of the Premiership – but the afternoon’s two major talking points were focused on individual performances.

At the top of the pitch, Leigh Griffiths marked the occasion with his first-ever Celtic goal with a fine strike on 58 minutes. And, at the opposite end, Fraser Forster’s 13th successive clean sheet saw him eclipse Bobby Clark’s Scottish League record of 1,155 minutes without conceding a goal in league competition.

Griffiths had joined the Paradise side from English outfit Wolverhampton Wanderers during that season’s January transfer window, and he was delighted to get off the mark in Glasgow’s green and white against the rivals of his boyhood heroes, Hibernian. After the match, the striker hailed his colleague Anthony Stokes for the pass up-field which preceded the strike, and admitted the stick he received in the build-up from the Tynecastle stands fuelled his drive towards goal.

Fast forward less than seven years and Leigh Griffiths has set another club and personal record, now among Celtic’s top-20 goalscorers of all time, rubbing shoulders with the likes of Kenny Dalglish, Stevie Chalmers and Henrik Larsson. With 118 strikes to his name, the striker surpassed Bobby Collins’ – who played for the Hoops in the 1940s and 50s – record of 117, a number Griffiths hit in the 3-3 draw with Aberdeen at Pittodrie earlier this month.

Griffiths came off the bench to net that Scottish Premiership goal, and did so again during Celtic’s 4-1 home defeat to Sparta Prague in the group-stages of the UEFA Europa League last week. Still, despite the latter result, the forward is desperate to keep working hard, make the most of his time on the pitch, and, whenever the opportunity presents itself, keep his goal tally growing.

“You always want to be part of things and as long as I can keep getting game time then my match sharpness will come back as quickly as it went away,” said Griffiths in an exclusive interview with the Celtic View. “I just want to keep getting minutes on the pitch and keep working hard and keep those numbers up.

“Getting that goal, getting into the top 20 scorers at Celtic, is a massive achievement for myself. Now, it’s just about trying to kick on and perhaps see how many places I can climb up that list.”

Griffiths stressed his delight in Celtic reaching another cup final, which means another chance to win silverware and a fourth successive domestic treble. The striker knows how much work is required to do so, and said he and his peers will do everything they can to lift Scotland's oldest trophy ahead of Christmas.

He added: “As for the prospect of another treble? Listen, we know what’s at stake. We’re one game away from making history in the Scottish Cup. We’re under no illusions that the Hearts squad won’t be fired up for it, they’ll be raring to go and wanting to stop us, but we just need to bring our A-game, make sure everyone is on-point and fired up.

“We want to go and win that trophy for the fourth time on the bounce, and what better way to do that than to win a quadruple treble?

“We normally have the League Cup final in December, which we’ve reached for the past few years in a row. This year, while the structure has changed, it feels like we’re sort of substituting that this time around. It’s another game that we want to go and win, whether it’s a cup final or not.

“It’s five days before Christmas and what a way to celebrate Christmas early than with a Scottish Cup winner’s medal. That said, we’ve got plenty of big games between now and then, and we’re focused on trying to win every one of those.”

Celtic View Exclusive: Leigh enters club's top 20 scorers of all time