Marc Wilson faces what might have been

When Northern Ireland manager Michael O’Neill looks out on the pitch at the Aviva today, he’ll be entitled to regard Marc Wilson as one that got away.

Born in Aghagallon, the 27-year-old Stoke City defender played for his native Northern Ireland at U15 level before switching allegiance to the Republic, of whom he once said, “I grew up supporting them so it was a comfortable decision for me.”

Now, even if it’s only a training game, the 27-year-old is relishing the prospect of coming up against some familiar faces in the opposition team he could also have gone on to represent.

“I know a few of them, like Jonny Evans and I know his brother, Corry, as well, we used to play in the same local team, Lisburn Youth,” he explained.

“I haven’t been at all surprised by his progress, Jonny. I had no doubt that he would go over and do well for himself.”

Is he expecting his former comrades to get a few kicks in?

“They could do,” he smiled, “but at the end of the day, although we want to get a result, the most important thing for us is to get the three points against Scotland.”

A defensive lapse in concentration cost Ireland dearly in Glasgow and was something uppermost in Wilson’s mind when the squad were put through their paces at the Aviva yesterday.

“With sessions like we have just done, balls being crossed into the box, defending and getting the guys to talk and communicate is very important,” he said.

“If we can get that good communication throughout the back, from the goalkeeper out across the back four, it helps tremendously.

“If you’re defending then your number one job is to defend. Here in the Ireland squad, if the ball’s gotta go, if it’s gotta go into row Z, there’s nothing wrong with that. Obviously we know we’ve got to cut sloppy goals out. That’s part of the training, what we’re trying to do, what we’re working on on the training ground. We’ll be doing a bit of video analysis, watching Scotland a lot because we know that their wide men deliver a lot of crosses into the box, That’s something that we have to think about and the manager, over the next period of time, will have that drilled into us.”

Wilson couldn’t he held responsible for Ireland’s 1-0 defeat at Celtic Park since injury confined him to a novel watching brief that night. “The atmosphere was outstanding. I was raging I wasn’t playing but I had torn my hamstring and so I was up in the top corner mixed in with the Scottish and the Irish fans.

“It wasn’t a great game. It wasn’t happening to be honest. When I was watching it I was thinking it’s going to be a nil-nil. But obviously they’ve nicked a goal. But I think if we can get them here. I think we can get a positive result. It was disappointing to lose to the Scots so I think, first and foremost, we want to put that right, and get the three points that would push us on in the group.”

Wilson, as it happens, also had to look on from afar at Stoke’s final game of the season, a remarkable 6-1 thrashing of Liverpool.

“I got red carded two games before - in my whole career I’ve only had two red cards - so I was on the bench. I couldn’t believe what was happening, it was more like a basketball game. Every time we seemed to get the ball through it seemed to end up in the back of the net. But it was a fantastic game to watch.”