Griffiths praises McDairmid park ref

Leigh Griffiths thanked referee Willie Collum for keeping his card in his pocket after the Celtic striker left the pitch to celebrate his 40th goal of the season with his son in the 2-1 defeat by St Johnstone at McDiarmid Park.

The Hoops forward opened the scoring eight minutes after the break from close-range then went behind the goal to cuddle five-year-old son Rhys whom he had picked out in the crowd before the game.

The Scotland striker will miss the last Premiership fixture of the season at home to Motherwell on Sunday after picking up a booking from Alan Muir against Hearts at Tynecastle recently but was glad not to get another from Collum, although Saints fought back to beat the champions through goals by Steven MacLean and substitute Graham Cummins to clinch fourth spot.

Griffiths, a life-long Hibernian fan, said "My other three kids were at home watching the game on television but I had seen my son after the warm-up and went and gave him a kiss and a cuddle.

"I asked him how many I was going to score and he said two, but I said to him I will take one and he said okay and when I scored I gave him a cuddle.

"I didn't go right into the crowd, I managed to stay away.

"He (Collum) said I am not going to book you, you brought your boy on to the ash so I thank him for that because he could easily have booked me.

"I got booked at Hearts for nothing so I am not going to thank that referee and he done my team (Hibernian) out of a hand ball last night (against Falkirk in the Premiership play-off) but these things happen and if you speak to the refs nicely he will let you away with one or two things and Willie did that tonight.''

Griffiths became the first Celtic player to score 40 in a season since Henrik Larsson in 2004 and only the eighth Celt ever to reach that figure in the course of a campaign, joining other illustrious names such as Joe McBride, Bobby Lennox and Charlie Nicholas.

He said: "To get mentioned in the same breath as these guys is something I have to cherish.

"There are strikers here who haven't scored 40 goals and I have managed to do that now and my name will go down in the history books as well.

Celtic's assistant manager John Collins, who will be leaving with boss Ronny Deila after the last game of the season against Motherwell, praised Griffiths and is confident he will be as deadly again next season.

He said: "You have to say 40 goals is a very high standard, not too many strikers score 40 goals.

"He should be proud of it and you could tell he enjoyed it.

"That is him finished for the season, he misses the game at the weekend but he will be back next season terrorising Scottish defenders no doubt.''

Saints boss Tommy Wright was delighted with the win and is looking for his side to make it five post-split wins out of five against Hearts at the weekend.

He said: "It is a great run of form, four wins, against Aberdeen and particularly tonight, but the two away wins as well.

"The players will have one more game and earn a proper rest and look forward to next season.

"We will see what happens in Sunday but if we play the way we have done we will have every opportunity of getting five out of five.''