Thursday 5 November 2015 22:36, UK
Ronny Deila says he is not considering his future at Celtic despite watching his side’s Europa League hopes dented by a 2-1 home defeat to Molde.
Molde booked their place in the last-32 thanks to goals from Mohamed Elyounoussi and skipper Daniel Hestad, either side of a Kris Commons equaliser.
Nir Biton was shown a red card late in the second-half for a professional foul as Celtic went in search of a second equaliser.
The defeat leaves Celtic bottom of Group A, with two points from four games and they will need to beat Ajax and Fenerbahce to stand any chance of securing qualification to the knockout phase.
After yet another disappointing night in Europe - Deila has failed to qualify for the Champions League since taking over from Neil Lennon in 2014 - the spotlight turns on the Norwegian again.
However, when asked if he was still confident that he would be given time needed, he replied: "Yes, I am confident about that.
"We have done very well domestically. In Europe we haven't reached that level that we want but we are going to improve.
"I am not thinking about my position. I am going to work hard to turn this around and be ready for next year - and the last two Europa League games."
Ajax moved on to three points and Fenerbahce on to five following their goalless draw in Amsterdam.
Celtic drew 2-2 with both clubs earlier in the campaign which gives Deila hope to declare that chances of qualifying were, "realistic, of course. We have a draw against both teams before".
He added: "Molde showed they are the best team in the group. We can beat Ajax here and we can beat Fenerbahce down there. We are going to fight to the end for those six points.
"It was individual mistakes again. We need to have much more character and pride.
"We have to win challenges and we lost that game inside the two boxes and that is disappointing.
"Kieran Tierney played with his heart, he had an unbelievable performance and that is a positive thing on a dark day."
Molde's win took them through to the knockout stages for the first time which "delighted" manager Ole Gunnar Solskjaer, who only returned for his second spell in charge of the club before the 3-1 win over Celtic in Norway last month.
The former Manchester United striker urged the Celtic board to keep faith with compatriot Deila.
He said: "He has been under pressure since he came to Celtic. If I was them [Celtic board] I would stick with Ronny.
"I know Ronny and I know his ideas of playing football and he is a very good coach."
Solskjaer believes the absence of Rangers from the top flight in Scotland has made it harder for Celtic to compete in Europe.
"It is hard when you win the league by just turning up every year," he added.
"It is hard to keep quality up all the time. They are not used to playing against Man United, Barcelona and Arsenal, any more.
"It is natural that they struggle to get up to the heights of when you had the Old Firm derbies, at least you had a few top, top games then."
