SPFL: Celtic urge fans to back 'Wee Jay' Beatty for goal of the month award

Celtic are encouraging their supporters to vote against one of their own players in the latest SPFL Goal of the Month, in favour of a penalty scored by an 11-year-old fan of the club who has Down's Syndrome.

Jay Beatty, from Armagh, first came to light during the Scottish Premiership side's title celebrations last season when then Parkhead striker Georgios Samaras picked him out from the crowd and manager Neil Lennon - now in charge of Bolton - gave him his medal.

The youngster, known to Celtic fans simply as 'Wee Jay', has since received a trophy on behalf of Samaras at the Grand Gala of El Mundo Deportivo, cheered on the Greek player at the World Cup finals in Brazil and enjoyed a visit to watch La Liga side Barcelona in Spain.

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Last month, Hamilton had Jay as their guest of honour for their league match against Celtic and he saw Ronny Deila's side win 2-0 through goals from Adam Matthews and Liam Henderson.

The most memorable moment of the contest came at half time, however, when Jay - who had already given Deila's players a pre-match team talk - took a penalty and scored then celebrated to applause from both sets of supporters, who also sang his name.

Gracious Hamilton announced the final score as being 3-0 on their Twitter account and the SPFL has now included it among 10 contenders for its January monthly prize.

Celtic defender Mikael Lustig's goal in a 4-0 victory against Motherwell is also on the list but the Scottish champions want people to overlook that.

They said on their website: "Normally, we would ask you to vote for any Celtic goal on the list, this time Mikael Lustig's header against Motherwell.

"But now, in a first, we are asking you to vote for Wee Jay and a strike that is listed by the SPFL as a Hamilton Accies goal against Celtic."