Tom Boyd believes that a second striker at Celtic park this season could see Leigh Griffiths hit the half century for the Hoops.

The Celtic frontman swept the board with the individual accolades at the end of last season after netting 40 goals.

And while Griffiths has modestly set the bar at hitting 20 this term, Boyd believes that with the right support alongside him that he is capable of bettering his tally.

Read more: Tom Boyd: consistency the key to Champions League success

“I think Brendan will be looking to get some help for Leigh Griffiths,” said the former defender. “That would be nice, having got rid of a couple of players in that department.

Glasgow Times: Leigh Griffiths is awarded the Ladbrokes player of the season trophy.

“It’s not that Leigh needs assistance because he was outstanding last year, being Player of the Year, scoring 40 goals and taking the burden on himself.

“He [Leigh] produced, but it would help the squad if there was someone there who could maybe push him on to 50 goals next year if he does have competition,” he said. “We will wait and see.

Read more: Tom Boyd: Joey Barton is jealous of Scott Brown and wishes he was at Celtic

“I would think the key thing for Brendan is to try and get some consistency.

“We had some poor performances last year and I think that is one of the reasons why Ronny lost his job. But we also had some good performances, very good performances and exceptional performances.”

Meanwhile, Boyd believes the barbs from controversial new Rangers signing Joey Barton are down to jealousy that Celtic did not want to sign him.

Barton this week began to stir the pot ahead when he claimed that Scott Brown “wasn’t in his league” and that the hype generated by Brendan Rodgers’ arrival was unwarranted since the former Liverpool boss “has won nothing.”Glasgow Times: BORN WINNER: Dougie Freedman can understand why Rangers worked so hard to land Joey Barton

Boyd, speaking in his capacity as club ambassador as Celtic donated £7,000 to this year’s Glasgow Taxis’ Outing Fund for Sick Children, laughed off Barton’s comments.

“I think it’s spurred by a bit of jealousy because Brendan never came in for him,” he smiled. “We do know that he is a big Hoops fan because he’s said so in the past.

“So his comments about Scott are probably down to him being annoyed that he’ll be playing against Broonie rather than alongside him.

“We’ll see how that develops over the course of the season. However, I don’t think that you can say that Joey doesn’t know what he’s let himself in for with the whole Old Firm thing.

“He’s already caught people’s imagination. Not a lot usually happens at this time of year and he’s made a couple of comments and got people talking about him.

“He’s not actually played any football yet so we’ll see how that develops. Yes, he is a very good footballer but we’ve yet to see whether he can walk the walk up here.

“Joey has a decent pedigree and he can have a huge influence on the park but there’s a long way to go and we’ll wait and see whether he can back his talk up.”