CELTIC were knocking on wood, but it wasn’t bringing good fortune for under-fire Wilfried Nancy.
The Frenchman stood transfixed on the touchline as the new Hoops boss faced a fifth consecutive game without a win after just two and a half weeks in the job.
Following four defeats on the spin, Nancy watched Benjamin Nygren pounce to give the champions a half-time advantage against an Aberdeen side that had seen defender Dylan Lobban red-carded just before the turnaround for flattening Daizen Maeda.
The 48-year-old former Columbus Crew head coach must have thought things were at last turning in his direction.
However, he may have had an inkling Dame Fortune was still scowling in his direction when Nygren hit the inside of Dimitar Mitov’s far post and the ball bounced straight back into the keeper’s grateful arms.
Arne Engels replicated the feat with an almost identical effort from the left wing and then the Belgian thumped a header off the opposite upright.
HAPPY BHOY…Wilfried Nancy celebrates the third goal.
Nancy must have thought he was about to experience that old familiar sinking feeling in the 74th minute when the visitors broke with a ball eliminating Auston Trusty for substitute Kenan Bilalovic to stride through and poke a shot under the exposed Kasper Schmeichel.
Apart from a pocket of Dons followers, Parkhead fell silent. It was simply astonishing that Jimmy Thelin’s team were back on level terms after being hammered throughout the second period.
Mitov pulled off a string of breathtaking saves, there were a handful of misses – Johnny Kenny again the culprit with two howlers in the first-half – and, of course, the intervention of the woodwork helped the visitors in their efforts to dig out something from a one-sided encounter.
Thankfully, Kieran Tierney claimed a second in the 88th minute and James Forrest, scoring in his 17th successive season, slotted away No.3 in stoppage-time.
As referee David Dickinson prepared to blow for time-up, a looping header from Shin Yamada, who had replaced Kenny, struck the crossbar.
The better team had won, but at one stage it did look as though the dark clouds were about to descend on Celtic again.
A relieved Nancy said: “I don’t believe in luck, but since I’ve been here I haven’t had a lot.
HAND’S UP IF YOU’RE HAPPY…Wilfried Nancy on the touchline.
“It’s true, because when we played Hearts, I think about the way they scored the goal and then after that against Roma we missed a penalty. We have hit the post in almost every game, but the most important thing is the resilience my players had.
“The players did really, really well. We hit the post four times. I’ve never seen that in my life. We deserved more. I can see an improvement every game. I’m happy for the players because they deserved it.
“Many team could’ve been down with all the chances we had, but we kept going wave after wave after wave and I’m really proud of that. It’s good for the players to validate what they did because I know that it was not easy for them.
“I’m happy for the players, I’m happy for the fans, I’m happy for the club, I’m happy for the board. We chase anybody. The idea is to compete with ourselves. After that, the standings, we’ll see.”
Nancy, speaking to the Daily Record, continued: “We had difficult moments because the game is like a movie, so it’s dynamic like that.
“I liked the way the score went, but I also liked the courage they had. When I talk about personality it’s about showing it in the difficult moments and my players did that.
“They did it in the past, they did it two games ago, they did it three games ago, but they didn’t have the outcome.
“That is so difficult to control. We should have had more wins, but every time I was able to see improvement. That’s why I’m really happy for my players.”
NOT TO BE SNIFFED AT…Wilfried Nancy looks down after Celtic hit the woodwork again.
Nancy remarked: “The fans want us to be at our best and that’s why, for me, it’s important to play for them.
“That’s what my players did by showing personality in the difficult moments.
“After each game, I take time – two or three hours sometimes – to watch it back action by action, cycle after cycle because I want to be really specific.
“I don’t like to talk, I like to show things and since the beginning when I came here after our first game I showed them clips where we did really good things, but the outcome was not there.”
The Frenchman, who will take the champions to Livingston on Saturday, added: “Nine games in 27 days, this is so difficult.
“This will be the first week with only one game. When I came in, I put myself in the shoes of my players, new coach, new methodology and where they had been winning, suddenly they were losing.
“It’s totally normal that something like this happened, but my job was to show them what they did well and what we need to improve.
“On this occasion, we have the outcome. That’s the kind of fact I like to show my players to see where we are and where we want to go.”
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