GREEN ARMY YELLOW PERIL

Ban threat puts O’neill’s men on a bookings tightrope

MICHAEL O’NEILL is prepared to gamble with Northern Ireland’s play-off prospects to avoid yellow peril.

He has six players one booking away from suspension going into tomorrow’s final World Cup qualifier against Norway, including skipper Steven Davis and defensive linchpin Jonny Evans.

O’neill does not want to lose them for the first leg of a potential play-off next month, but also knows defeat in Oslo could damage the team’s seeding chances.

Northern Ireland were 20th in the last FIFA standings and the four highest-ranked sides will be seeded in the draw for the play-offs.

“We’re on a tightrope in terms of bookings,” said the Northern Ireland boss. “Equally, we can’t allow ourselves to field an inexperienced team and be beaten and then suddenly lose out on goal difference.

“There is real importance that we need to make sure the result in Norway doesn’t hurt us. Obviously, we want to go there and try and get the three points, and we certainly want to make sure we’re not beaten.

“You look at the permutations in terms of the teams finishing second and there is no guarantee our points total will be enough.”

O’neill (above) will finalise his line-up after tonight’s qualifiers. Northern Ireland will be assured of a play-off place if Bosnia and Greece fail to win in Group H. We’ll have to see what happens between now and when we play on Sunday,” said the Irish boss. “We’ll just have to evaluate the situation come Saturday night when everyone else has played.”

Josh Magennis, who scored Northern Ireland’s consolation goal in Thursday’s 3-1 defeat to Germany, is one of the six who needs to avoid a booking.

The Charlton striker believes the way to do that is to be calm but committed.

“It’s something that will be in the back of our minds, but we’re whole-hearted players and we’re not going to be pulling out of challenges if we think the ball is there to be won,” he said.

“We have to play with cool heads and manage the game properly.”

PLAY SAFE Evans is just one booking away from missing play-off tie KEEP COOL Josh Magennis was on target against Germany