CELTIC 1 ST MIRREN 3
WILFRIED NANCY completed his horrendous hat-trick from hell as Celtic toppled to an embarrassing defeat to St Mirren as they surrendered their Premier Sports League Cup at Hampden this afternoon.
The procession of pain and torment for the Hoops manager, players and fans continued following losses to Hearts and AS Roma in the Frenchman’s first two games.
The unthinkable happened at the national stadium as Nancy clocked up the worst start by any Celtic manager in history.
Their opponents played exactly the way we knew they would and the Parkhead men still looked unprepared as the trophy was wrenched from their grasp.
Shamal George made a couple of excellent saves to deny the Hoops, but at the end of the day there can be few complaints.
UP IN ARMS…Wilfried Nancy yells instructions as his team topple to defeat for a third successive game.
It’s not easy to win a game when you concede soft goals and carry passengers at the same time your opponents are thundering into every challenge and competing all over the pitch.
It was an afternoon for the Celtic players to stand up and be counted and, unfortunately, some were not equipped for the task.
Arne Engels, Sebastian Tounekti and first-half substitute Johnny Kenny produced next to nothing and Daizen Maeda wasn’t far behind.
Liam Scales never looked comfortable and Reo Hatate, despite his goal, was AWOL on far too many occasions.
There is much work for Nancy to do. And precious little time.
Only 91 seconds were on the clock when the Paisley side took the lead and it was an all-too-familiar tale for the Hoops defence.
The goal came from a right-wing corner-kick – just like Hearts a week ago and AS Roma on Thursday.
NET LOSS…Kasper Schmeichel is helpless as the header from Marcus Fraser (extreme right) beats him low at his post to give St Mirren the lead in 91 seconds.
The Celtic defence showed they had learned nothing from previous mishaps as the ball was whipped over and Marcus Fraser all too easily brushed aside the challenge from Hatate to send a header low past the grasping fingers of Kasper Schmeichel.
The ball hit the inside of the keeper’s right-hand post and bounced into the net.
Clearly, that was not in Wilfried Nancy’s pre-match script, but once again his team found themselves a goal down for the third successive game.
The equaliser arrived in the 23rd minute when the hard-working Callum McGregor set up Kieran Tierney for the opportunity to deliver a good ball from the left.
The Scotland international duly obliged with a searching, angled pass and Hatate’s timing was absolute perfection as he raced forward and launched himself at the cross.
He made a superb contact with his right boot and Shamal George was stranded as the ball whipped low past him into the opposite corner of the net.
THE EQUALISER…Reo Hatate stretches to divert the ball wide of St Mirren keeper Shamal George to throw Celtic a lifeline at Hampden.
There was a blow for the Hoops when Kelechi Iheanacho, who had been leading the line excellently and looking eager to make an impression, limped off in the 34th minute with a recurrence of the hamstring injury that sidelined him for 10 games before his second-half appearance against AS Roma.
Kenny came on as the Nigerian international limped towards the dressing room.
Iheanacho, in fact, could have claimed the side’s equaliser in the tenth minute with a whiplash header from a Scales left-wing cross, but George got down in a flash to get his left hand to the effort and scoop it away from danger.
Five minutes later, the Hoops breathed a massive sigh of relief when the Saints carved them open, but Daniel N’Lundulu was wasteful with his shot from six yards and the ball thankfully whipped just wide of Schmeichel’s right upright.
Celtic took control in the immediate aftermath of their goal, but they just could not get the ball behind George to earn them a crucial interval lead.
The shotstopper instinctively blocked a close-range drive from McGregor and he reacted quickly to knock the ball wide for a corner-kick after a diversion from his own player following a low cross from Tounekti.
Kenny and Trusty were to blame when the Saints took the lead again in the 64th minute. The young Irish striker failed to control a ball in the middle of the park that was seized upon to set the move in motion.
ENDGAME…Kelechi Iheanacho is treated before going off with a recurrence of his first-half hamstring injury. He went off to be replaced by Johnny Kenny and a lot of Celtic’s goal threat went with him.
Trusty had the chance to clear, but his pass was sloppy and the ball was eventually moved onto Alex Gogic who was allowed the time to clip an inviting ball into the box that eliminated both Scales and Tierney for Jonah Ayunga to race in and nod into the gaping net with Schmeichel in no man’s land.
It was a dreadful goal to concede and the Saints players and fans went crazy with delight. The Celtic supporters were silenced once again.
In the 73rd minute, Nancy sent on Colby Donovan, James Forrest and Luke McCowan for Ralston, Tierney and Tounekti.
Three minutes later, Celtic were hit by a classic suckerpunch when they were caught upfield and the Saints broke on the left.
Declan John left Donovan in his slipstream as he raced into the open space, enticed Trusty to come over to challenge and then released a perfect pass to Ayunga to slot behind Schmeichel.
Yang Hyun-jun came on for the extremely disappointing Engels in the 84th minute, but it was too little too late.
Celtic’s reply was a low shot from Donovan that was pushed past the post by George at full stretch and the keeper produced an acrobatic effort from a Kenny diverted shot deep in stoppage-time.
And then Kevin Clancy blew for full-time to put us out of our misery.
TEAM: Schmeichel; Ralston (sub: Donovan 73), Trusty, Scales, Tierney (sub: Forrest 73); Engels (sub: Yang 84), McGregor, Hatate; Maeda, Iheanacho (sub: Kenny 34), Tounekti (sub: McCowan 73).
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