Wilfried Nancy becomes a results man | OneFootball

Wilfried Nancy saw his team just about win for the first time in his short Celtic tenure at the weekend. It took until 87 minutes for the lead to be restored, when Kieran Tierney nodded home from close range, before James Forrest made things more comfortable in the games’ dying embers. That must have been a relief for the Celtic boss and a moment when he finally became a results guy.

Indeed, the performance would have mattered little if the Hoops dropped points again, despite the fact that the team deserved to win the game by four or five goals in much more comfortable fashion.

The victory will need to prove a key moment in his short time at Parkhead. It was something that Martin O’Neill was praised for, finding a way to win whether the performance was good or bad.

On this occasion Celtic played well and only the players conspiring to miss a plethora of sitters prevented the proverbial cricket score. However, it was another game when the Bhoys conceded a soft goal and shot themselves in the foot. Those things override the performance if they cost you points a results and silverware business.

In an ideal world the performance and results marry together, but to win trophies when there’s a genuine challenge, it is sometimes a requirement to simply do what is needed to win.

Celtic done that for the first time on Sunday and long may it continue!

Speaking after the match, the Celtic boss wouldn’t be drawn on the matter of results. Instead, he said that he has been unlucky since being in the hot seat at Paradise and expressed his satisfaction on behalf of the players.

“I don’t believe in luck, but since I’ve been here I haven’t had luck,” Nancy said. “It’s true because when we played Hearts, 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 of my players.

“I’m really proud of what they did because they had so many big chances and suddenly against 10 men you concede a goal like this. Their heads could have gone down but they didn’t. They kept attacking.

“Attack, attack, attack, waves, waves, waves.

“The two goals we scored were the reward for the grit and the resilience that they showed. The fact that we had lost so many games and they were still able to come back was something I really enjoyed seeing.”