CONOR’S BOOSTER
Northern Ireland’s Conor Washington aims to shine for QPR after Euros
HE faced Gareth Bale, Thomas Muller and Robert Lewandowski this summer – now QPR striker Conor Washington is ready to show the Championship what he’s learned.
The 24-year-old played in all four matches as Northern Ireland reached the last 16 in France and was man-of-thematch in a stirring 2-0 victory over Ukraine.
Michael O’Neill’s men finally bowed out with an unlucky 1-0 defeat against Wales, but Washington says the underdogs – ranked 52nd in the world when the Euros kicked off – proved plenty of people wrong.
“When we were speaking to the media beforehand, we were given absolutely no chance,” he recalls. “They expected us to roll over for three games.
“But we were all looking around at each other thinking, ‘What’s going on? Do these guys know the boys won the qualifying group relatively comfortably?’
“We all felt there was no reason we couldn’t go out and do well and I think we justified that faith in ourselves.
“We’d lost to Poland in the first game, really underperformed. We did a lot of soul-searching and went out against Ukraine thinking ‘Whatever else happens, we play our own game and make the fans proud’.
“That day… it’s just the best game I’ve ever been involved in. The best result, best performance, best atmosphere I’ve ever heard.
“Watching the ball sail over me onto Gareth McAuley’s head is probably the best feeling I’ve ever experienced on a football pitch. It still brings a smile to my face now because I just knew it was going in the top corner.
“The only problem was I didn’t fully recover for the Germany game. Physically, it was such a massive strain on my body. I only played about 70 minutes but I did something like 10K in that time.
“I did all I could to recover but I felt leggy for days. To be honest, I was running on adrenaline for the rest of the tournament!”
Washington’s heroics on the grandest stage are all the more remarkable given that he was playing for St Ives Town just four years ago and still hasn’t scored for the Hoops following a £2.5m move from Peterborough in January.
Being labelled the new Charlie Austin didn’t help, but Washington says his slow start was more to do with a steep learning curve.
“I never really hit the ground running,” explains Washington, who scored 27 goals in 82 games for Posh following a switch from Newport County in 2014.
“Going up a level and getting to grips with the extra fitness – it’s a lot tougher than people perhaps expect.
“Jamie Vardy is the perfect example of a player who took a bit of time to find his feet. You’re trying to adapt to new team-mates, a different style of play. And I was different to anyone QPR already had.
“I was a little bit disappointed that I didn’t get a 5-6 game run, which is what I felt I needed. The form I’d been in at Peterborough, I just wanted to plough straight into the action and try to keep the momentum going.
“It didn’t happen but I’ve spent the summer playing against players of a higher standard than the Championship and that’s given me a lot of confidence.”
Now all that remains is to oust in-form German and prolific pre-season scorer Sebastian Polter from the starting line-up.
“He’s been brilliant,” admits Washington. “If he keeps playing like that, I’ve got no chance! But I feel good, I’m fit and I’m fully recovered from the summer. I just want to keep riding this upward curve.”