Defiant Celtic star refuses to play Wilfried Nancy blame game as speedy resolution sought to recent struggles
Hoops defender eager to use League Cup final heartache against St Mirren as a springboard to banish new boss’ disastrous start
Auston Trusty wants his Celtic team mates to use the pain of their Premier Sports Cup final defeat to St Mirren as fuel to ignite the stuttering Wilfried Nancy era.
The Frenchman has endured a nightmare start to his Hoops tenure, suffering three straight defeats to Hearts, AS Roma and the Buddies in three different competitions, becoming the club’s first ever manager to fail to win any of his opening games in charge.
But USA international Trusty was in defiant mood after their latest setback, revealing their embattled new boss was left upset by the chastening 3-1 loss on his first visit to Hampden Park.
Rather than reflecting on the negatives, the centre-back instead issued a call to arms to unite the club and insists it’s down to the players to find solutions in-game to win matches.
Nancy feeling the heat after difficult start
“It’s extremely upsetting, obviously, you don’t want to lose,” the 27-year-old said. “It’s an opportunity to win the trophy for this club and this organisation, and to not lift it and to lose in that fashion, you don’t want that.
“We’re a good team, so we can bounce back from this. It’s been a tough week and results haven’t gone our way, so it’s one to forget. To lose the past three games, three really big games, doesn’t look good. We need to stay together and regroup.
“There’s highs and lows to everything. We know results will come, it just takes one little moment and we’re all back together. For all of us in the building, there’s highs and lows that’s just part of the game.
“Obviously, the manager is upset and we share that. We’ll have to go and watch it back and see what went wrong. You’re obviously quite emotional during the game and don’t see certain things. They took their chances and we had ours but we didn’t put it in the back of the net.
“To wear this shirt and to lose is just not an option. That’s the environment we’re in and the culture they’ve built. That’s the organisation I joined and I knew coming into it that there was a winning mentality here. We just can’t afford to lose games like this.”
Trusty: ‘I’m confident we can turn it around’
Trusty is well aware of the expectations of playing for Celtic and is backing himself and his team mates to find a speedy resolution to their recent woes amid a hectic run of fixtures.
Asked if this is the most difficult moment of his Celtic career to date, Trusty replied: “There’s highs and lows every year that everyone has in their career. Listen, I’m confident and I think we all are that we can turn it around. Yes, we’ve had a bad run of results, but it’s been a very good season up until this point and we’ll continue to have a good season.
“It’s just been a tough seven days as I said. From the outside, it maybe looks quite bad but it’s only been seven days. Togetherness is what is takes to turn things around.
“From his (the manager’s) point of view, it’s been difficult. As the new guy coming in, you want to get results especially during a big week for the club. You want to win and get everybody on your side. We have his back and he has ours.”