CELTIC hero John Hartson celebrates his 51st birthday today.

By an amazing coincidence, the legendary goalscorer marked his 31st landmark with a title-winning strike for the Hoops in 2006.

The Welsh powerhouse became a fans’ favourite right from the off after arriving in a £6million deal from Coventry City in the summer of 2001 as Martin O’Neill added him to his prolific striking double-act of Henrik Larsson and Chris Sutton.

PARADISE…Celtic players take a lap of honour after Birthday Bhoyo John Hartson’s title-winning goal against Hearts on April 5 2006.

Hartson fired in 110 goals in his five exceptional years at the Hoops, but one of his most memorable must surely be the fabulous effort that secured the club’s fortieth crown.

Author Alex Gordon highlighted the wonder strike in his fifteenth Celtic book, ’50 Flags Plus One’, the tribute publication which covers all of the team’s first sequence of untainted title successes in their glorious history.

In another CQN EXCLUSIVE, Alex takes up the story of another spectacular milestone in club folklore with an edited extract from the publication.

ON the evening of April 5 2006, in front of an audience of 59,699, Celtic were on the...