Spending Celtic overcame a late scare against 10-man Aberdeen to claim their first win after Wilfried Nancy’s fifth try.
This takes some of the pressure off the Frenchman after a run of four defeats, keeping him six points clear of Premiership leaders Hearts with a game in hand.
Benjamin Nygren opened the scoring for the Hoops, while the Dons, unbeaten in six league games, had Dylan Roban sent off for bringing down Daen Maeda.
Despite dominating possession, the Hoops squandered one chance after another and finished with an incredible expected goals total of 4.53, before Kenan Bilalovic slotted past Kasper Schmeichel to equalize in the closing stages.
However, Kieran Tierney regained the lead with two minutes remaining, and James Forrest secured victory in stoppage time with his goal for Celtic, his 17th successive season.
Pressure eases but Celtic leave late
James Forrest has scored in 17 seasons for Celtic.
It was a positive end to a week in which Peter Lawwell revealed he would step down as chairman at the end of the year, citing “abuse” and “intimidation”, amid ongoing fan protests against the board.
Indeed, thousands of Celtic fans took part in an anti-board protest outside the main stand before the game.
Nancy’s men immediately took the initiative and missed several chances in a strange and subdued atmosphere.
In the 7th minute, Hoops striker Johnny Kenny missed Maeda’s cross by just centimeters, but midfielder Arne Engels fired home from the edge of the box.
In the 27th minute, after Dimitar Mitov spilled Engels’ corner kick, Maeda fired in from close range, but the Dons keeper saved Engels’ diagonal drive, but Kenny missed his goal from 14 yards out.
The first big cheer of the game came when Nygren slid home Maeda’s cut-back, and as Celtic continued to threaten, Mitov tipped Luke McCowan’s drive over the bar.
Aberdeen’s Dylan Lobban (right) is shown a red card for a foul on Celtic’s Daen Maeda.
But when Mitov’s sloppy pass, which was well outside the box, went to Maeda, he charged towards goal and Roban pulled him back, leaving referee David Dickinson with no choice but to send off the defender.
Celtic’s pressure at the start of the second half was relentless.
Mitov made two more fine saves. First it was Auston Trusty’s header, then McCowan’s drive.
The Dons keeper was brought down by Nygren’s chip from a poor angle, but the ball hit the far post and bounced into his arms.
Kieran Tierney (left) restored Celtic’s lead in the second half
After another great save by Mitov from a long-range piledriver from Celtic defender Anthony Ralston, Engels’ looping cross from the left hit the frame of the goal, and the Granite City side escaped again, just as Engels’ header hit the post.
Aberdeen’s equalizer opposed the run of play.
Substitute Kjartan Kjartansson forced 20-year-old Vilalovic through the middle and beat Hoops keeper Schmeichel with a drive.
Tensions were high among the disbelieving home fans, but with three minutes left Tierney darted to the back post to meet a cross from substitute Colby Donovan and fellow substitute Forrest scored his third goal from close range.
Nancy: “This is just the beginning.”
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Celtic manager Wilfried Nancy reacts to his first win as manager after four consecutive defeats
Celtic manager Wilfried Nancy told Sky Sports News:
“I feel good for the players. I think we should have won more, but it didn’t happen.
“You can see I hit the post five times today. I’ve never seen anything like that in my life, but this is something you have to accept.”
“That’s why I really like the resilience of my team, because we had a lot of chances to score, we had five chances to hit the post like this and then it wasn’t easy mentally to concede a goal at 1-1, but they showed a lot of grit to come back and score two more goals.”
“This is just the beginning. There’s a lot to work on, but today was a good day for them to express themselves and they did it well.
“I’m not chasing anyone. We’re chasing our performance, chasing ourselves, chasing how we have to play to compete with ourselves.
“We’ll take a look at the rankings after that a little later.
“For now, this is what we can do. We’ll improve, get even better and see where we rank after that.”
Selin: “It’s a reasonable result, but that’s the important point.”
Jimmy Sellin (right) and Dylan Lobban (left) sent off against Celtic
Aberdeen manager Jimmy Sellin told Sky Sports News:
“Football can get weird sometimes.
“I don’t think the way we entered the game was what we expected. We can definitely improve on the way we press and the way we approach the game when we have the ball.
“Celtic outplayed us from the start and in the second half we were one man behind, but of course we were a bit lucky in the first 10-12 minutes.
“Sometimes you need luck to get something, but then you get into the game and the players who come on the pitch make an impact and make it 1-1.
“Of course, because of the good fortune we had and the fighting spirit within the team, we have to take advantage of it. The points were there to get at the end. Of course it was disappointing.”
“It’s a natural result, of course they were better than us today.
“But sometimes when we have moments where we get points, we have to take that extra step and understand the situation we’re in and play a little more maturely in those moments and be more accurate on the simple things and the fundamentals at the end of the game.”
