After Pierce Charles stepped up and shone in the last international window, Northern Ireland manager Michael O’Neill admits he is going to have a tough decision to make when it comes to who starts in nets against Belarus next Friday.
Charles, just 19-years-old, stepped up in the absence of Bailey Peacock-Farrell against both Belarus and Bulgaria and kept two clean sheets in their last two Nations League games, propelling Northern Ireland to the top of Group C3.
However, with Peacock-Farrell back in the fold for their final two games against Belarus at Windsor Park and away to Luxembourg, it means O’Neill will have a decision to make when the squad reconvene next week.
Peacock-Farrell has been the incumbent for years and has reliably led Northern Ireland to big results in the past but there is no doubting how impressive Charles was in the last window, with his distribution from the back widely praised.
And O’Neill has conceded that he will have no shortage of sleepless nights trying to decide who will start against Belarus in a week’s time, confirming that Peacock-Farrell won’t just be handed the shirt on his return and will have to earn it back.
“Pierce was excellent for us in the two games, he kept two clean sheets and his distribution was exceptional,” praised O’Neill.
“He’s the profile of a young goalkeeper, he’s only 19-years-of-age, he’s not playing regular football but he played in the Carabao Cup against Brentford and had a very good game. He’s had a lot of positives.
“His development has been excellent in the last 12 months. In the summer, Pierce was playing for our Under-19s in the European Finals and now he’s a senior international and challenging to play at a Championship club. He has a good, young goalie ahead of him at Sheffield Wednesday, on loan from Brighton, so there’s challenges there. As a goalkeeper, you have to be patient.
“Bailey has to get himself back into the Birmingham team, he’s had a little bit of an injury that kept him out in October, but competition is good for the squad.
“Conor Hazard is going to be fit again soon, hopefully he can continue where he left off at Plymouth. Christy Pym has been playing well for Mansfield, Luke Southwood is in the team at Bolton. We have five excellent goalies there.”
In an ideal world, Northern Ireland wouldn’t have had a month’s break between this international window and the last, O’Neill’s side putting on one of their best performances in recent memory to hammer five past Bulgaria in a 5-0 thumping at Windsor Park the last time they played.
Led by Isaac Price’s outstanding hat-trick, that elevated them to the top of Group C3 with two games remaining but perhaps the biggest challenge is trying to pick up where they left off in October having gone back to their clubs and having varying degrees of success.
It is one of the toughest parts of being an international manager and O’Neill understands that he will have to approach this window carefully to try and maximise the benefit of what they did against the Bulgarians.
Isaac Price celebrates scoring for Northern Ireland in their 5-0 victory over Bulgaria
“We’ll address that when the squad come together,” he begins of trying to harness that momentum.
“You’re in contact with the players between windows but they have to go back to their clubs and that has to be their focus. The positive experience at international level helps you when you go back to your club, I know that from my years as a player, but they all face different challenges. Some of them have had limited minutes in that period so they’ll be looking forward to coming back here and getting the opportunity to play again.
“I think the most important thing is that we take that positivity into this camp. We did that between September and October. We’ve had a lot of positive camps even when results were going against us previously, I saw a lot in the younger group that gave me something to be positive and have hope for. You need to look at your group and have a bit of hope, and certainly, in the last 12 months in particular, we’ve seen that.
“It’s about the consistency of how they are when they turn up. They’re ready to work, they know how to work and they’ll be ready to go again for Belarus and Luxembourg.”
Should Northern Ireland win against Belarus next Friday then a draw would be enough in Luxembourg for them to top the group, while a draw with Belarus would mean it would have to be three points in their final fixture to finish ahead of Bulgaria provided the latter, as expected, win at home against Luxembourg in round five.
Rather than focus on permutations, however, O’Neill is putting a laser focus on the rewards for finishing top of the group – namely promotion to League B and some potential glamour ties in next year’s competition – as motivation to get the job done this time around.
“It’s always nice to finish top of anything. We’re under no illusions, we’re playing in League C and it would give us the opportunity to play in League B next time, which would probably increase our chances of a Play-Off situation for 2028, which are always factors,” he concurs.
“We want to build on (camp) each time. We’ve had a lot of positive camps, probably none more so than October, and we have to try and replicate that come November.”