An 11-year-old Celtic supporter has won the Scottish Professional Football League’s January goal of the month competition by a landslide – collecting 97% of the votes.

Jay Beatty – who has Down’s syndrome – was invited to come on to the pitch at half-time during Celtic’s 2-0 win at Hamilton to take a penalty, which he converted to rapturous applause. Hamilton went as far as announcing the result as 3-0 on Twitter and after Beatty’s effort was included on the shortlist for goal of the month, there was only going to be one winner.

The Celtic striker Georgios Samaras, currently on loan at al-Hilal in Saudi Arabia, announced Beatty as the winner in a video message, in which he said: “Jay my friend, me and you are the same, scoring goals. I’m very happy to announce that you won the goal of the month. Well done pal, great job. I miss you and I love you. See you, Jay.”

The youngster first came to prominence last year after Samaras picked him out from the crowd to join Celtic’s lap of honour after winning the league. There was even a campaign to fly him out to Brazil to follow Greece’s World Cup campaign but Jay and his parents were eventually forced to decline an invitation from the Greek FA because they were on a family holiday in the United States.

Jay’s father, Martin Beatty, thanked the thousands of football fans who voted for his goal. He said: “Not many of us get to live our dreams and Jay is getting to live all our dreams. Thank you to everyone for making this possible – we are so grateful and proud.”

Georgios Samaras sends Jay Beatty a video message confirming the result of January’s goal of the month competition.