‘Nancy miserable in midst of Celtic baptism of fire’

And Celtic? This is a diminished team with an uncertain manager, a furious support and a haunted board.

At the end, you looked one way and you saw two-goal Ayunga – “amazing, man” – and his driven mates and then looked the other and there was Wilfried Nancy, miserable in the midst of his baptism of fire.

Three games, three defeats. Records are getting broken all the time in the early days of his regime. The little bit of feelgood that this club restored in the brief time Martin O’Neill was in charge has been shredded into a million pieces, like the abandoned ticker-tape on the Hampden grass.

O’Neill just about managed to paper over the cracks of a club that has badly lost its way but all those fractures are so obvious now. With supporters engaged in a toxic stand-off with the board and the team having lost any sense of direction and confidence they once had, Nancy has walked into something he cannot have understood.

His team played strongly for the final half hour of the first half but they went out like a light after that. When Robinson’s immortals – yes, that’s what they have become – turned on the afterburners and sped away into the distance, Nancy had no reply.

His team were hit on the counter, his defence ripped apart, his hopes of asserting himself as a manager of substance cast to the wind. This was savage.

His hyperactivity for much of the day – leaping about his technical area and gesturing madly in the manner of a man at a rave – had gone. He was static now. Motionless for the most part. Resigned to his fate in the present and, perhaps, fearful for his position in the future.

Many doubtful eyes will be upon him as Celtic face Dundee United on Wednesday. There are questions here: as ludicrous as it seems, how many more games like this one does Nancy have before the Celtic hierarchy do something about it? What’s the tipping point?

There’s a bigger question, though. A more profound one. Nancy might be making a mess of it on the pitch, but what about the ones above him who, fans might say, have fallen asleep at the wheel?

In the best of times, Celtic’s communication with fans has been poor. Now, in the worst of times, do they retreat ever inwards to block out the flak? Where will that get them? Some humility is called for. Fans will not be holding their breath.

The club is going backwards on so many fronts. From going toe-to-toe with Bayern Munich earlier in the year to this? It’s a stunning drop-off.

Their wont is to blame sections of fans for causing ructions, for not being grateful enough for what they have. Some hard-line supporters stand accused of really poor behaviour, but the masses have nothing to do with any of that. They, too, seem furious at where the club is and where it might be heading. Relations haven’t been as bad since the 1990s.