UNDER-PRESSURE Wilfried Nancy watched in anguish as he suffered his fifth defeat in only seven games as Celtic toppled to a 2-0 loss to Motherwell at Fir Park last night.
The champions were played off the park by opponents who dominated a first-half in which they claimed the opener through Ibrahim Said in the 13th minute and the visitors failed to offer a single effort on their opponents’ goal in retaliation.
The second-half was much of the same and it was game over when Elliot Watt capitalised on a Kasper Schmeichel blunder to roll in the killer second in the 58th minute.
With over half-an-hour still to play, it was obvious this stuttering, stumbling Hoops outfit were not equipped to respond – much the same as against Hearts and Dundee United in previous Premiership outings with an alarming nine points dropped from a possible 15.
WINNERS AND LOSERS…Motherwell players celebrate as Wilfied Nancy, with his head bowed, leaves the field.
And, of course, it was an identical story in the 3-0 home loss to AS Roma in the Europa League and the 3-1 nosedive against St Mirren in the Premier Sports League Cup Final.
Nancy now faces his first Glasgow derby when Danny Rohl takes his Ibrox outfit across Glasgow on Saturday after warming up for the encounter with a 2-1 victory over Celtic’s Hampden conquerors.
The Frenchman failed to guide the champions back to the league summit where a win in Lanarkshire would have ensured a shared place with Hearts on points at the pinnacle at the turn of the year.
Nancy rejected suggestions his future could be decided by the outcome of the weekend all-Glasgow confrontation and said: “No, not at all. Each game for me is important and for the team is important.
“I don’t think about my future. I think about what I do now and what I need to do to improve the team and what we need to do also to improve the team. And this is the way I think.”
Asked if the strain is mounting, the former Columbus Crew head coach, speaking to Sky Sports, answered: “As a manager, personally, this is not something that I want and this is not something that we want.
“In terms of pressure, it doesn’t change the way I think about this because we know that we have to do well. But for the moment, this is the reality and I knew that it could be like that.
ANOTHER GAME, ANOTHER DEFEAT…Wilfried Nancy experiences that familiar sinking feeling.
“We had good games at certain moments. Tonight is a difficult one. The last game, the first-half was really good. The second-half could have been better. So this the reality.
“Am I confident I can turn things around? Yes, I’m confident. I had to make choices on this occasion regarding the team and also we have a few players away regarding the situation.
“I’m confident with where we want to do, where we want to go. The reality is, for the moment, this is for this game. This was a tough game, it was difficult for us, for this game.
“But I think that we’re going to get better.”
Nancy made a triple change at the interval – hooking Daizen Maeda, Kieran Tierney and Paulo Bernardo to put on Shin Yamada, Luke McCowan and Arne Engels.
He insisted it was all part of the gameplan and added: “It was planned to do it because Daizen and Kieran played a lot of minutes.
“In the beginning, I wanted them to be on the bench, but also I wanted them to be part of this game because they are important.
“So, that’s why the idea was to give them only 45 minutes for this game. They were tired. I don’t want them to be injured.
“So, I needed also to make choices regarding that.”
Now all eyes are on Nancy and his players as the derby encounter kicks off 2026 in the east end of Glasgow in three days’ time.
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