Scott Sinclair helped his side comfortably beat St Johnstone in the Scottish Cup on Sunday.
BBC pundit Paul Hartley has expressed his amazement at Scott Sinclair’s ‘incredible’ goalscoring record for Celtic considering ‘the stick he has been taking’.
The 29-year-old netted a hat-trick against St Johnstone on Sunday afternoon as Brendan Rodgers side brushed aside Tommy Wright’s men 5-0 on home soil.
Following his goals at the weekend, Sinclair has now taken his goalscoring tally for the Hoops to 59 goals in 145 matches in all competitions, according to transfermarkt.
Former Celtic man Hartley admitted that Sinclair deserves credit for his record and perhaps deserves more recognition for the criticism he has taken added with the position he plays in.
“57 [now 59] goals in 144 games – as a wide player, that is incredible,” Hartley told BBC Sport. “With the stick he’s taken over the last couple of seasons. You have to look at the goals he’s scoring and at his contribution to the team.”
Prior to moving to Scotland, Sinclair was playing in the English Premier League with Aston Villa where he suffered relegation with the Midlands side in 2016.
Upon the club’s relegation to the second tier of English football, Rodgers snapped up the services of Sinclair, who he previously worked with at Swansea.
Nonetheless, in his first season, he scored 21 goals in the Scottish Premiership as the road to Celtic’s double treble under their highly-rated manager had begun.
While the versatile attacker hasn’t been able to match those goalscoring records in the league, he is still a regular threat in the final third as he will be hoping to be part of yet another dominant Celtic side at the end of the season.
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