‘I DON’T FEAR SACK,’ DEILA

Shrugging aside questions over his own future, the Norwegian said: “I don’t think about my position. That’s for other people to write about.

“I’m going to work hard to turn this around and be ready for next year, as well as the final two games here, as well.”

Asked if he expects to be given time by the Celtic board to turn things around, Deila responded: “Yes, I’m confident about that.

“I talked about that two days ago and one day ago. So, again – we have done very well domestically. In Europe, we haven’t reached the level we want.

“But we are going to improve, that’s what we are going to do.”

It was a catalogue of misery for the Celtic support who saw on-loan Manchester United defender Tyler Blackett come on for the hobbling Simunovic and then get hauled off on the 68th minute to be replaced by Nadir Ciftci.

The young Englishman looked surprised to get the hook – no-one else in the ground witnessing his utterly inept display was indulging in a similar thought process. It was disaster after disaster on the night before the club’s 128th birthday.

Deila pondered: “What can I say to the fans to give them hope? That we all the time are trying to analyse what we are doing, try to do it better and that we are not happy with what happened here.

“In saying that, there is still a chance to go through. If we win our next two games, we can go through.

“We are lucky we are getting a second chance and we will do everything we can to beat Ajax and then we have a good opportunity to beat Fenerbahce.”

With a position of domestic dominance just about guaranteed, Deila acknowledged he is now being judged on European results. The verdict is fairly damning.

The Norwegian, looking under pressure, said: “It’s a lot of things that I am judged on.

“I’ve said that many times before. It’s the results in Europe, I know that if we lose the league, that’s not good, either.

“It’s about developing a team that can get into Champions League and get a green line through the whole system from youth, so we can get players like Kieran Tierney.

“Someone who played there with heart and he had an unbelievable performance. That was a positive thing on a dark day.”

The loss of Simunovic – a pre-match doubt – with an ankle injury was the catalyst for more dire defending. It’s difficult to believe Deila was a centre-back in his playing days and half of his main back-up team – John Kennedy – was a central defender, too.

Deila defended his decision to start with the Croatian defender. The Hoops gaffer said: “He was 100 per cent fit. He twisted his ankle and pulled up injured again. But he was ready and was tested before the game.

“We need to improve individually. We score goals and again we created chances in this game. We had four, five, six big chances.

“So, it’s marginal. It doesn’t help, either, when you get two injuries in the first-half. That makes it hard to make the substitutes you want.

“A lot of things went against us, but there is still a chance we can qualify and we are going to fight for the six points.

“We have to give some credit to Molde, I think. They have won almost every game they’ve had in Europa League.

“So, it’s two things, we could perform better and we need to be much more clinical when we play in Europe. We cannot keep conceding so easy goals.

“If you do that then you will get beaten by a team like Molde.”

Molde coach Ole Gunnar Solskjaer urged the Parkhead board to keep faith in Deila.

He said: “He has been under pressure his whole career at Celtic – that is the nature of his job.

“If I was them, I would stick with Ronny. I know Ronny and he is a very good coach.

“It’s not easy when you win the league by just turning up every year. It’s hard to keep the quality up all the time.

“They are not used to playing against Barcelona and Manchester United any more.”

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