It was wonderful to get back to winning ways yesterday against Aberdeen at Celtic Park and for our manager it must have been a huge relief given the most difficult of starts he’s had for any manager in our club’s history…
Conall McGinty’s reflections on yesterday’s game is well worth a read and matches my own take on what has happened and where we are at the moment, plus where we need to go as a support. That means getting behind Nancy and the team to make sure we are going to win the league.
After the 3-1 victory over Aberdeen Wilfried Nancy spoke to the mainstream media, with The Celtic Star and other fan media outlets banned by the Celtic Board who can’t accept scrutiny. Here’s everything that was said in the media room after the match…
Q: When Aberdeen scored the goal, did you worry it was going to be another one of those days, because the team had played so well and should have been out of sight?
Wilfried Nancy: “I didn’t want to think about this. What I told my players, I’m really proud of what they did. Obviously, we had so many chances, and there could have been many, many goals. Suddenly, against 10 men, you concede a goal like this, I think we could have been down, but they didn’t do it.
“They kept attacking, attack, attack, attack, with waves, waves and waves. I think that the two goals that we scored are the reward of the grit and the resilience that they showed. Knowing the fact that, obviously, we lost so many games and they were able to come back and to be shown, this is something that I really enjoyed seeing.”
Q: Were you feeling a bit cursed at that point? Obviously, you’ve hit the woodwork three times, six, seven good chances, 31 shots on goal today. Were you fearing that luck has gone against you at this point in time?
Wilfried Nancy: “I don’t believe in luck, but since I’m here, I don’t have luck! It’s been true because when we played Hearts, the way they scored the goal, after that, against Roma, we missed the penalty kick. After that, we hit the post almost every game that we played. But again, for me, the most important thing is the resilience that my players had. If you watch the first goal that we scored, we lost the ball, and after that, three, four, five players tried to win the ball back. After that, we won the ball, and we scored. For me, it is important to see that, because this is the spirit that I want to see.”
Q: Obviously, we spoke about resilience and the character the players showed, but is it just as pleasing for you, the overall performance? Because it looked as if the players were really getting to grips with what you were asking them to do?
Wilfried Nancy: “Yes, but to be honest, while we didn’t have the outcomes, as I said before, I saw a lot of improvement every game. We didn’t have a full performance, regarding the 90 minutes, but all the games that we had, we had at least one really good half. Tonight, obviously, we had a complete half with difficult moments, because the game is dynamic, it’s like that. But again, I like the way we scored goals, but I also like the courage that they had.
“I think that they understand me when I talk about this. When I talk about personality, it’s about showing in the difficult moments. Tonight, my players did it; 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. So that’s why this is so difficult to control that, because we should have had more wins. But no, like I said, every time I was able to see improvement. So that’s why today I’m really happy for my players.”
