Northern Ireland: Jamie Donley ‘has great international future’, says Michael O’Neill
Northern Ireland will have no Liverpool star Conor Bradley, plus peers absentees Eoin Toal, Dan Ballard, Ali McCann and Dion Charles and Dion Charles visited Windsor Park on Friday night and headed to Stockholm to face Sweden’s trip four days later.
“Connor has been a loss, he has brought a huge amount of energy to the team. He has been on the team since he was a very young man, and our team will always be stronger.”
“But (the lack of injured players) offers opportunities for young players. The young Terry Devlin of our team who trained well on the team, Brodie Spencer, who trained well on the team, will be a young team that will play on Friday night.”
Last year, Northern Ireland beat the National League against C, which included a 5-0 home victory over Bulgaria and a 2-0 success in Luxembourg and Belarus in Belfast.
However, O’Neal warned that the upcoming match against Switzerland and Sweden represents progress in the classroom.
“This match on Friday night was a test against a very good team – a Swiss team transitioned a little bit on its own, but was a consistent team in the championship football and better than it has done in the past 12 months.
“But we have to be able to fight against better teams. It will be a challenge, but we have to believe we can do that.
“They (the players) had a great year and got their faith from it. It’s a positive experience for them on the international stage, especially at home. I think this team will continue to grow and improve over the next two to three years. Especially I think there are a lot of positive signs.”
