Aiden McGeady’s 52nd minute strike in Celtic’s 3–2 victory over Motherwell at Fir Park last weekend represented the Parkhead club’s 1000th league goal since the formation of the Scottish Premier League back in 1998.

96 goals ahead of the SPL’s next highest scoring side - city rivals Rangers - Celtic’s impressive total perhaps owes more to the SPL’s all time top scorer Henrik Larsson than anyone else. The clinical Swedish striker netted 158 league goals between 1998 and 2004, ending as the SPL’s top scorer on no less than five occasions. Indeed a Celtic player has finished top of the scoring charts in eight of the 11 SPL seasons to date (Larsson - 5, Viduka - 1, Hartson - 1 & MacDonald - 1).

As SPL sponsor, we have recognised Celtic’s landmark achievement with a presentation to the scorer of Celtic’s 1000th SPL goal, Aiden McGeady, at Celtic Park.

McGeady said:
"Obviously its a great honour to score the 1000th Celtic goal in the SPL, but I accept the award on behalf of all the Celtic teams and scorers who have contributed to this great total. Since the SPL began, there have been some great names who have made a massive contribution to this total, players such as Henrik Larsson, John Hartson and Chris Sutton – and more recently Scott MacDonald has scored a great number of SPL goals. As well as strikers, midfielders have also played a crucial role – Stilian Petrov, Lubo Moravcik, Alan Thompson and Naka – all top quality players who have scored regularly and won honours with the Club.

"Everyone knows that it is the Celtic tradition to try and play attacking, entertaining football and this is what we will continue to try and do during the course of the season. I hope I am fortunate enough to score many more goals for Celtic, but more importantly I hope the team continues its great scoring record and wins as many games as possible. I know all the players in the current team will be giving everything they can to try and achieve that."

SPL club goal totals table (correct up to 18th Dec 2009)

1. Celtic,  1001
2. Rangers, 905
3. Hearts, 573
4. Hibernian, 548
   
5. Motherwell, 519
6. Kilmarnock, 518
7. Aberdeen, 511
   
8. Dundee United, 472
9. Dundee, 308
10. Dunfermline, 295
11. Inverness CT, 222
12. Livingston, 205
13. Falkirk, 178
14. St. Johnstone, 159
15. St. Mirren, 140
16. Partick Thistle, 76
17. Hamilton, 45
18. Gretna, 32

By cbfootball.co.uk   Last updated: 19 December 2009