The Treble was seen by many as the port in what was a considerable storm.

The calm waters of domestic dominance were seen as capable of dismissing the disquiet around Ronny Deila that came in the aftermath of a disastrous European campaign.

Not for the first time this season, however, the waves have gotten a little choppier. Whether the potential return of a league title and Scottish Cup double is capable of serving as a life raft remains to be seen.

While Deila retains the backing of the Celtic board, he has acknowledged the squirming difficulty of a telephone conversation with Dermot Desmond, the club’s majority shareholder in the aftermath of a performance like Sunday.

The Norwegian braced himself for the call from Desmond, whom he speaks with regularly, but is positive that he will be given further time to get it right with Celtic.

“Of course it is hard when things are not going well,” he said. “But Dermot and Peter [Lawwell] can see what is just one result. I am confident they can also see the much bigger picture of what we are trying to achieve here. They are clever people and they understand that. It is never easy having a conversation when things have not got the way you wanted them to or expected them to.

“But there is no-one more disappointed than me about the defeat. It is difficult. But we have a massive game now tomorrow night and we cannot afford to feel sorry for ourselves.”

There was something telling in Deila’s post-match comments deep inside Hampden on Sunday evening when he touched on the “weakness” within his Celtic team in terms of adversity.

He subsequently sought to alter that to a more palatable quote – mindful perhaps of a candid interview in the wake of the Champions League qualifying exit to Malmo which created headlines when he used words such as “scared” and “stressed” when describing his team’s performance – but the Norwegian was right the first time.

This is a Celtic team that finds difficult to come back from any level of adversity within a game.

The defeat to Ross County on Sunday afternoon highlighted the deficiencies that are still within Deila’s side and anything other than a strong result and performance in Pittodrie on Wednesday night will intensify the pressure that he is under.

Celtic chief executive Lawwell was unequivocal in his support of Deila in October, after the failure to make it to the Champions League group stages, but even their belief would be tested if Aberdeen were able to narrow the gap considerably.

A win for the Parkhead side would steady the ship and effectively put them on course for the when-and-where-the-title-can-be-won scenario, but anything other than that will bring further criticism rushing to the fore.

Deila, though, is insistent that nothing about his preparations for the game against Derek McInnes’ side have been altered in the wake of Celtic’s defeat to Ross County.

He did, however, urge his players to capitalise on the anger they showed within the dressing room on Sunday afternoon and channel it into their performance at Pittodrie.

“It was an angry dressing room after the game,” he said. “That is what happens when you get players who are disappointed.

“We have spoken, we have went through a few things but to me now we need to take the energy and the anger we had at Hampden and into the game against Aberdeen.

“It is another big game right on the back of this and we need to keep our focus.

“This is the mark of all big teams – there are games around the corner all the time and it can be only be a good thing because it means that we have to move on immediately.

“We know how difficult our games against Aberdeen have been up at Pittodrie. They showed earlier in the season that they are capable of hurting us so we need to be ready to go from the first kick.

“But you have to remember that we also know how to win games. We have won games against Aberdeen and we can do it again this week.

“The result on Sunday has no bearing on how we approach it. It was always an important game for us because we want to win the title. That has not changed. The game is not more important because we lost to Ross County and our approach to it is not any different.”

Deila has always been public about his desire to win everything that he can while overseeing Celtic but having seen his Treble ambitions disappear he has no regrets over making it clear that was his target.

“As a football player or a coach or a manager you want to win everything you can – that is why we are here,” he said. “That won’t ever change. It is so disappointing that we cannot achieve that but there are another two things to win and we have to allow ourselves to focus on them now.”