Jay Beatty: 11-year-old nets Scottish goal of the month award

An 11-year-old boy from County Armagh has won the Scottish Premiership goal of the month award for January.

Jay Beatty, from Lurgan, hit the back of the net at half-time during Celtic's victory over Hamilton Academical.

Jay, who has Down's Syndrome, won 97% of the thousands of votes cast to scoop the award.

The announcement was made on YouTube by Jay's hero, former Celtic striker Georgios Samaras.

On the video message, sent from Saudi Arabia, Greek striker Samaras says: "Jay my friend, you and me we're the same now, scoring goals. I'm very happy to announce you won the goal of the month.

"Well done pal, great job. I miss you and I love you."

Jay, a big Celtic fan, knocked in his half-time penalty during his team's win at Hamilton after being invited to the game as a special guest of the New Douglas Park side.

'Celtic daft'

He was able to give a pre-match team talk to the Celtic players in the away dressing room.

His father Martin said at the time that Jay had stood in front of 20 professional players and "gave off" about their previous performances, saying they needed to buck up their ideas.

Speaking after Jay's goal was confirmed as the goal of the month winner, Mr Beatty revealed that his son had wanted to vote for Celtic player Mikael Lustig as the scorer of the best goal.

Mr Beatty told BBC Radio Scotland's Newsdrive programme: "That is just Jay - he doesn't really realise and he is Celtic daft.

"Jay doesn't play with toys, he doesn't play with anything, all he does is watch Celtic, look at Celtic books, look at Celtic magazines and listen to Celtic songs to the point where my wife and daughter I think are going to go into therapy because it is driving them nuts.

"I don't mind, but maybe after ten hours on a Saturday sitting watching the same DVD it does get a lot."