´I accept the challenge´ – Nancy determined to change ´struggling´ Celtic´s fortunes

Wilfried Nancy says he “accepts the challenge” of the Celtic job after suffering a shock 3-1 loss to St Mirren in the Scottish League Cup final.

Former Celtic defender Marcus Fraser opened the scoring after two minutes, but it was Jonah Ayunga’s second-half double after Reo Hatate’s equaliser that did the damage.

It was just St Mirren’s second triumph in the Scottish League Cup, and their first in 13 years, while Celtic, the defending champions, lost a final for the 16th time.

Nancy lost his first two matches to Hearts and Roma, in the Scottish Premiership and the Europa League respectively, becoming the first Hoops boss to do so, and that streak stretched to three games on Sunday.

But Nancy is not shying away from the pressure he faces, noting that he knows the results are not good enough, but he is confident things will turn around.

“I saw good things, but it wasn’t enough to win the game,” he told BBC Scotland. “We are struggling, conceded a few goals from set-pieces.

“We had to come from behind; we saw a good reaction. We had many opportunities inside the box to be better.

“When things don’t go the way we want, we need to stick to what we do and play with more desire to play forward. I want to help the players with that.

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“The results always count, but I have to see beyond the result; I have to see what we need to do better to get a complete performance. This is something I discuss with the players, and I think we’re going to be able to do it.

“It’s totally normal [the fans] are questioning me, but I think I showed them that we can do better. I showed them the direction I want to go.

“This is part of the job. I know where we are now, I know where we want to go, and I really believe we’re going to be able to click and move forward.

“I think we are a bit fragile at this moment, but my job is to give them confidence and move forward. I am happy to be here at this moment. I accept the challenge.”

Despite having fewer shots (11 to Celtic’s 14), St Mirren did not waste their chances in front of goal, accumulating 1.3 expected goals (xG) compared to 0.8 for Nancy’s side.

The last time St Mirren won the competition back in 2012-13, they beat Hearts to lift the trophy, but Conor McMenamin says they always had the belief that they could beat Celtic at Hampden Park.

“Just proud of all the team, amazing effort from us all,” he told BBC Scotland.

“We worked so hard all week on how we could nullify Celtic and play our own game. We were brilliant.

“We came here and believed in ourselves, believed we could beat Celtic. It wasn’t luck, we deserved to put our hands on that trophy.

“It’s the only thing this team hasn’t got in the last few years – top six finishes, European things. To get silverware now, we’ll go down in history.”