Craig Gordon has revealed that he told Leigh Griffiths at half-time to go and “be the main man” in the William Hill Scottish Cup semi-final.

Celtic have moved to within one game of securing a domestic Treble for only the fourth time in their history after goals from Callum McGregor and Scott Sinclair.

It was Griffiths who won the spot-kick that led to Celtic’s second, while the Scotland striker came close with an effort that was tipped over the bar immediately after the second goal.

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With Moussa Dembele crocked with a hamstring injury, Griffiths is set for a prolonged run in the team as Celtic see out the season.

“I said to Leigh at half-time when we got into the dressing room, come on now, Leigh, you are the main man for whoever long that may be Get out there and show everyone what you can do and to be fair to him, I thought he was fantastic for us when he came on.

“He has been unlucky this season with a few injuries but there is no doubting his quality. It was only last season that he scored 40 goals and he is a real threat whenever he plays. He always hits the target and he is a player who is a real handful.

“We have no problems in the striking department, that is for sure.

“He has waited for a chance and even though he has been in and out he has a great scoring return and hopefully now we’ll see a hungry Leigh Griffiths between now and the end of the season.

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“It is great news for him and it is good for Scotland too. He will get a bit of game time now ahead of the game against England and I am really pleased for Leigh because he is such a big player here.”

Gordon had little to do until the latter stages of the game, but he was glad to offer something as Kenny Miller tried to drag Rangers into the affair.

“We controlled the game for the most part,” he said. “They came into it more in the last 20 minutes when they had to come out and have a go but it was nice then that I got to make a wee contribution.

“But I have to say that I thought the lads in front of me were brilliant. They we were fully focused on how we wanted to play and we really stuck to our game plan and performed the way that we wanted to.

“The manager was happy about how we went about our business. We wanted an early foothold in the game and we really imposed ourselves and created a lot of chances and I thought that was reflected in the scoreline.”

Celtic play Rangers at Ibrox on Saturday afternoon on league duty with Gordon insistent that the Hoops will look to come away with another victory.

“We will approach it in the same way that we prepare for every game now,” said the goalkeeper. “We will look at this game and take the positives from it and there are always one or two things that we feel that we can do better.

“Rangers are at home so they will want to come out and make a mark but we are confident, we have a lot of belief in ourselves and we will go there in the same frame of mind that we have went into every game this season.”