How Rare Are Four Straight Defeats for Celtic?

Would a fifth loss mark Celtic’s worst run, and how do Scotland’s other clubs compare?

THREE LOSSES IN A ROW

Celtic have lost three consecutive matches of football just 51 times across their entire history. Only 34 of those runs have occurred since the end of the Second World War, and only five since 1990. Even by modern standards and the increase in European matches, three straight defeats remains an extreme outlier for the most successful club in Scotland.

Before the arrival of Wilfried Nancy, the most recent example came in Celtic’s horrific 2020/21 season, when the Hoops lost three matches in the space of a week; away to Sparta Prague, then at home to Ross County, before a further defeat against AC Milan.

Prior to that, Celtic had to go back to 2007, when defeats to AC Milan, Rangers, and Falkirk came in consecutive matches. That context underlines just how unusual even a three game losing run is for the Parkhead club.

Four consecutive defeats, therefore, sit firmly in the category of utterly exceptional. Yet that threshold was crossed at Tannadice Park on Wednesday night, as Nancy became the first manager in the Scottish Premiership era to lose his opening four matches in charge since Daniel Stendel did the same with Hearts in 2019.

This article examines every occasion Celtic have lost four matches in a row, placing the current run in full historical context. It then compares those figures with Rangers, before looking at what would a fifth consecutive defeat represent in historical terms?

Finally, the analysis will touch on the entire Scottish Professional Football League, covering all 42 member clubs. For each, it identifies their longest ever losing streak and - for current Premiership sides only - the most recent occasion they too endured a four match losing run.

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FOUR LOSSES IN A ROW