Beleaguered Nancy insists Celtic are improving despite worst run since 1978

After 2-1 loss to Dundee United, Nancy finds himself on the end of Celtic's first four-match losing streak since January 1978, during Jock Stein's final season in charge

LOOKING DOWN: Celtic manager Wilfried Nancy dejected at the final whistle after the William Hill Premiership match at the Falkirk Stadium. Pic: Steve Welsh/PA Wire

Wilfried Nancy understood Celtic fans' anger after some demanded his exit following a fourth defeat in four games in charge but the manager maintained he was seeing improvements "every day".

A 2-1 defeat by Dundee United at Tannadice sparked angry chants in the Frenchman's direction as Celtic stayed six points behind William Hill Premiership leaders Hearts.

Celtic were dominant in the early stages and took the lead through Daizen Maeda but paid the price for some missed chances, notably from Johnny Kenny.

United put the pressure on after the break and scored twice in three minutes through Krisztian Keresztes and Zac Spasford after Celtic failed to deal with some aerial balls.

Maeda headed against the post from close range late on as Nancy found himself on the end of Celtic's first four-match losing streak since January 1978, during Jock Stein's final season in charge.

When asked if he heard chants calling for him to leave, the 48-year-old said: "I heard it. And obviously, it's not easy to hear that. But I can understand their frustration too.

"It's new for me to have four losses in a row. This is also new for the players.

"I can understand they are upset. But the only thing that I can tell them is that I think we had a good performance.

"We are missing the goals that could have been good for us and we are still working on that to win the next game.

"We don't have a lot of time to work but when we work, we do it well. And again, that was a good performance. But the result was not there.

"We had the possibility to score many goals, because we had a lot of chances. And if we don't score, if we don't keep the game after that, the game is not over. That's why it's difficult to accept that, but this is the reality."

Nancy admitted his side need to be better at defending set-pieces but he added: "I can see every day improvements. I think we did a good game but in terms of results, it was not enough. Obviously I can understand why the fans are upset."

United manager Jim Goodwin admitted his team had enjoyed some good fortune in the first half but some tactical illustrations helped turned the tide.

"The game plan was to be aggressive from restarts, from Celtic's goal-kicks, and to try to lock on," he said.

"I've got to credit my centre-backs in particular because there were times they got dragged into areas they wouldn't normally be, and not feel the most comfortable to be in those situations.

"We asked them to trust us and carry out the game plan and I thought they did that really, really well.

"But too many times in the first half we found ourselves in that mid-zone, where we don't want to be. We want to put on an aggressive press at the high end of the pitch, and we are very comfortable in our low block breaking into the counter-attack, but we got done three or four times because we allowed Celtic too much space behind the back line.

"We were able to show the players that at half-time and we put a stop to it."