Daily Mirror (Northern Ireland)
FLANSTAND FINISH
Tom hopes he’s done enough to earn role in final group games
SUNDERLAND’S Tom Flanagan hopes the double-header drama of Rotterdam and Prague proves a watershed moment in his Northern Ireland career.
Flanagan impressed alongside Craig Cathcart and Jonny Evans in Michael O’neill’s three-man defence in Monday’s 3-2 friendly win over the Czech Republic.
He also made his competitive bow as a late substitute in last week’s agonising 3-1 defeat to the Netherlands in a crunch Euro 2020 qualifier at De Kuip Stadium.
Two very different experiences but priceless staging posts for the London-born centre-back who hopes he has advanced his reputation in recent days.
“It’s all about trust at this level,” said Flanagan, who won the first of his four caps in a friendly win over New Zealand in 2017.
“My big thing in Prague was to play well so that when Michael plans for next month’s qualifiers with Germany or Holland and he wants to play a three, he can trust me.
“I understand why I don’t play as much because of who’s in front of me
but hopefully I’ve put a thought in Michael’s head and maybe put my name forward.”
Flanagan, 27, freely admits he embarked on some “self reflection” after coming on as an 87th minute substitute against the Dutch in Rotterdam.
The scoreline read 1-1 when he replaced Corry Evans to shore up the defence, only to see Ronald Koeman’s men turn the game on its head in added time.
Holland’s crucial second goal skidded off Flanagan’s head and landed in the path of Luuk de Jong who converted in fortuitous circumstances at the back post. “It was devastating how it ended and you can’t help but look at yourself when you come on as a sub at 1-1 and walk off losing 3-1,” he said.
“So there’s a bit of self reflection there. I’ll go away and have a think about it, watch the game, speak to some of the coaches here and get feedback.
“I’m not a kid but I always want to learn and I want to try to be where the likes of Craig and Jonny are because they have what I want.
“For their second goal, it touched the centre-forward, I’ve headed it and to be honest I turned around and thought, ‘That’s going comfortably over the bar or past the post’. I got a good touch so we were all thinking, ‘How did he do that?’. It was such a good performance but people will just look at the result.”
On Koeman branding Northern Ireland’s style of play “terrible to watch”, Flanagan smiled: “Hopefully it comes back to bite him in Belfast next month.
“He maybe felt he had to put the onus on to us and say we were terrible instead of reflecting on his own team’s performance and pointing a few fingers there. It comes with the territory.”
After the pain of Rotterdam, Flanagan was pleased to see out Monday’s 3-2 win over the Czechs who trailed 3-0 but scored twice in the second half to tee up a nervy finish. “They threw on some big hitters and didn’t really work from a shape so the last 10 minutes was organised chaos but we showed grit and determination to get a great win,” he said.