SFA bid to bring in O’Neill

NO 1 TARGET: FROM PAGE 56 O’Neill, approaching his sixth anniversary as Northern Ireland manager, refused to discuss his future after his side’s goalless draw in Basel on Sunday, which sealed a 1-0 aggregate loss following Switzerland’s dubious penalty goal in Belfast.

“No, I haven’t even considered that,” he said.

“Tonight is about being with my players, spending time with them and making sure they are OK.

“As I said to the players themselves, there is no need to make any rash decisions on anything they want to do.”

O’Neill, who played for Dundee United, Hibs and St Johnstone, was given his big managerial break by Brechin City.

The Glebe Park outfit named him as Ian Campbell’s successor in April 2006 after he had impressed during a spell assisting Mixu Paatelainen at Cowdenbeath.

O’Neill spent twoand-half-years in Angus, leading city to the Championship play-offs in 2007.

He left in December 2008 to join Shamrock Rovers and guided them to the League of Ireland title in 2010.

O’Neill’s Northern Ireland assistants are also based in Scotland. Scot Austin MacPhee is assistant manager at Hearts while Jimmy Nicholl is working at Falkirk.

Malky Mackay took charge of Scotland in a friendly defeat by Holland last week but SFA chief executive Stewart Regan had already ruled him out of the running to succeed Strachan on a longterm basis.

Scotland’s next match is likely to be in March with talks taking place over a friendly in Morocco.