Northern Ireland boss Michael O’Neill up for friendly send-off
Both Ireland and Northern Ireland will next June participate in their first-ever major tournament together in France but cannot be grouped during Saturday’s draw due to them being in Pot Four.
Each of the teams will have four friendlies as preparation and, with the first pair scheduled for March, there’s a window in May for the first official meeting since 2011 when Ireland won 5-0 in the doomed Carling Nations Cup.
“If the two Football Associations think it is right and it aids both of us in terms of preparations, then why not?,” said Michael O’Neill about the prospect of a friendly.
“I played in five of the six qualifiers between the teams back in the 1990s and they were special games to be involved in.
“It is in our interests to work together. If we can help each other in terms of preparation we will.”
His Ireland counterpart also sounded upbeat at the idea. “I would not a problem at all with playing that game,” said Martin O’Neill.
“We had a behind-closed-doors match in June which showed the two of us absolutely nothing at all.
The younger O’Neill was just 12 when Martin skippered Billy Bingham’s side during the first showpiece in Spain, where they shocked the host nation.
“To watch Martin captain the 1982 was an inspiration because that was my first real World Cup experience,” he explained.
“Those were amazing times in Northern Ireland and it’s good to be back at a tournament again.
“Martin missed the next World Cup through injury and I came into the Northern Ireland squad just after that to play alongside many of his former team-mates.
“We struggled to qualify from then on and the ironic thing is I scored twice against Austria to help the Republic get a play-off for Euro ’96.
“We’ve had never maybe had a strong enough squad to sustain a campaign it lasts over 15 months, not three weeks.
“This group have done it by topping their group and we look forward to the draw on Saturday now.” Away from the glamour of qualification, behind the scenes O’Neill has worked tireless to create structures noticeably lacking when he took over in late 2011.
Many Northern Ireland-born stars such as Darron Gibson, Shane Duffy and Marc Wilson had turn their back for the Republic before his arrival and he was determined to create an environment whereby differences in quality weren’t cited as reasons. The flow of talent south has subsequently stalled.
“Not only do we want to develop the players in Northern Ireland but, more importantly, we want them to play for Northern Ireland,” said O’Neill with a wry smile.
“There wasn’t really a structure when I took over but we’ve slowly built that and built it on a shoestring.”
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