MIRACLE WORKER
O’Neill can inspire next great journey
MICHAEL O’NEILL has played mind games on his players as he attempts to boost his reputation as a football miracle worker.
The Northern Ireland boss leaves no stone unturned to get the maximum from his group of international journeymen – even down to making them watch motivational videos. Getting into their heads certainly seems to be working. If guiding his team to the European Championship last 16 in France last year was a stunning achievement, O’Neill can surpass that by ending the country’s long wait to reach the World Cup finals. They need to hold their nerve in 180 minutes of play-off football against Switzerland – tonight’s first leg at Windsor Park will be followed by the return in Basel on Sunday – to be rubbing shoulders with Brazil, Germany and Spain in Russia next summer. They have been to the finals before – in Sweden in 1958 and then when Billy Bingham’s boys reached back-to-back World Cups in 1982 and ’86. But in those days virtually all the players came from the top flight – Pat Jennings, Sammy McIlroy, Martin O’Neill, Norman Whiteside, Gerry Armstrong, Jimmy Nichol and Mal Donaghy, to name just a few of the 80s heroes.
The current squad boasts just four players who ply their trade for Premier League clubs – Southampton’s Steve Davis, who will win his 100th cap tonight, plus West Brom trio Jonny Evans, Gareth McAuley and Chris Brunt.
The fact that the rest of O’Neill’s squad come from the Championship, League One and the Scottish Premier League underlines his achievement in transforming international nohopers into a team to be feared.
He won’t go into detail about what is in the videos, but said: “I wanted the players to have a real strong identity and pride to play for Northern Ireland.
“We’ve done a lot of work with the players behind the scenes, not just on the training pitch. The key is to make sure that your team is right to play.
“If the video adds one per cent or makes one player feel that wee bit better about themselves, then it was worthwhile doing.” O’Neill’s transformation took a while to get up to speed but over the last three years Northern Ireland have proved no pushovers, helped by the renovation of Windsor Park into an atmospheric home stadium. “We weren’t starting from a great position, it wasn’t an overnight fix and never will be when you’re a small country,” added O’Neill. “The players deserve enormous credit, they had to turn it around themselves. “You can get into a habit of things being poor and losing and that mindset. It takes guts to change it and the players did that. That’s something we hang onto.” They will be underdogs tonight against a Swiss team that won nine of 10 qualifying games but still missed out to Portugal for an automatic ticket. “The players have done fantastically to get to this point,” said O’Neill. “I see in this squad an opportunity they don’t want to waste. “The one thing I would say to them is don’t fear the situation, embrace the situation and make sure whatever happens when you look back there are no regrets.”