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The under-pressure manager declared he had no concerns about the sack, maintaining, “The team is really close to things turning around,” even after sliding worryingly close to being fired with a comprehensive loss to their arch-rivals.

A Second-Half Capitulation Results in Old Firm Loss

The home side were in front their oldest rivals at the interval but a second-half capitulation let Rangers to draw level on points with the reigning league title holders. The former MLS manager, who was hired in December, has now been in charge for six losses in his last eight matches.

“We are together at the club,” said the manager.

Pressed on his own future, the 48-year-old responded: “I don’t think about it. My focus is on finding ways to get the team to excel on the fine details.

Protest On Display

The fans voiced their fury – directed at the board and manager – by gathering outside the stadium. Club directors are thought to be considering to return to the interim manager, who had a fruitful temporary stint before Nancy was hired, if the Frenchman were sacked.

“The outcomes [that leads to pressure]. And that’s the situation for the moment. However in stating this is the reality, it doesn’t mean that I am giving up. No. What I mean the turnaround is near, extremely close to change the narrative.”

“Really, Really Close”

Nancy continues to cling to the fact Celtic can perform strongly for a half at a time. Indeed, were it not for wastefulness in front of goal they could have been greater than 1-0 up. “The performance had merit other than the fact that we haven’t scored a second goal,” he said. “I acknowledge that we lost, but I have also to be objective.

“The standard we had at stages was really, really, really high. That is a fact. I could not speak so positively if it was not the case. That is the reason, in terms of results, I said it's a repeating pattern. That’s why I said that we are really close to things turning around. Currently: the fine margins.”

“We produced plenty of positives that we did, like today again. The issue now it’s about consistency. My message would not be if it was not the case. This is why I firmly believe we will manage to fix this.”

Röhl’s Cautious Outlook

The victorious boss played down talk of a title charge despite what appeared to be a huge result. “We take it game by game, so we can gradually build a challenge,” he said. “The confidence in the squad is immense.”