MacPHEE MAKING THE MOST OF NORTHERN DELIGHTS
SAYS AUSTIN MacPHEE
SITTING on his hotel balcony overlooking the San Jose Stadium in the Costa Rican capital, Austin MacPhee marvels at the adventure his life in football continues to provide. A part of the Northern Ireland backroom team since being added for a game with Uruguay in 2014, MacPhee agrees with national coach Michael O’Neill’s assertion that the trip to South America sowed the seeds for the country’s subsequent qualification for Euro 2016.
The Northern Irish flew back to the Americas last week, playing out a draw with Panama in midweek before heading to Costa Rica for a second friendly today.
They have a full squad in tow, full of players determined to be involved when the Euros come around again in two years. In the case of Aaron Hughes, they also have a 38-year-old so dedicated to representing his country that he travelled even as he considers whether to retire from the game this summer.
Against that backdrop, Fife-born MacPhee is miffed to see Scotland’s concurrent trip to Peru and Mexico treated with such indifference.
‘The minute we told everyone that we would be preparing for games against Panama and Costa Rica, it was regarded as quite exciting,’ remarks Hearts’ assistant manager.
‘When Scotland took on the games against Peru and Mexico, it was as if they had announced Iraq and
Syria.
‘It was presented as another blunder by the SFA.’
Any anti-SFA sentiment was, of course, worsened by the association’s failure to recruit O’Neill when Gordon Strachan’s contract was allowed to expire at the end of the World Cup preliminaries.
Although O’Neill too could not guide Northern Ireland to Russia 2018, his team once again punched above its weight in the qualifiers and was thwarted only by a disputed penalty-kick converted by Switzerland in the play-offs.
The failure to land O’Neill cost SFA chief executive Stewart Regan his job and ultimately led to the fall-back option of Alex McLeish, whose settling-in period has been mired by a raft of call-offs for the two-game end-of-season trip arranged before his appointment.
‘There are a few factors,’ observes MacPhee. ‘Obviously Brendan Rodgers’ concern over his Celtic players ahead of the Champions League games is one.
‘And regarding ourselves, Michael O’Neill does things in a way that makes the players want to be here.
‘We’ve trained and we’ve worked hard but there’s been a mix of activities — we were down at the Panama Canal last week and played golf in San Jose on Friday. There needs to be a fun element to it.
‘And you can’t underestimate the legacy of qualification for Euro 2016.
‘These players have been over the course and have experienced the feeling of success, and bonds have been built over the last four years. It’s impossible to understate how important it is for Scotland to get to a tournament.’
Regan clearly believed O’Neill was the man to help Scotland take that vital step but was unable to convince the board that they should better the £750,000 contract on offer with his current employers at Windsor Park.
Their offer fell short and MacPhee saw a possible opportunity to operate under the Saltire evaporate.
‘I know it ran on a long time but Michael has put all that behind him and is back in the routine,’ says MacPhee, choosing his words carefully. ‘He goes the extra mile for his players and that extends to club football. If a player is ready to move, he’ll stick in a phone call.
‘Josh Magennis benefited in that way when he went to Charlton. I know for a fact he did that for Liam Boyce when he moved from Ross County to Burton Albion. I know because we tried to get him at Hearts. Players respond to that kind of effort and support.
‘We’ve got the Nations League coming up. We’re in League B, one tier above Scotland and we’ve drawn Austria and Bosnia. Hopefully that can be important for us in terms of qualification.’
McLeish has leaned heavily on captain Charlie Mulgrew during Scotland’s tour. Mulgrew’s 35 caps make him the most experienced international on board by a distance, with Matt Phillips the only other player in double figures.
Phillips played against Peru but subsequently dropped out to fulfil a prior agreement, leaving McLeish woefully short of experience going into the overnight game against Mexico at high altitude.
With the Celtic core absent and the likes of Matt Ritchie, Ryan Fraser and Allan McGregor also finding reason to drop out, McLeish has essentially been left with a B team.
‘We have not had any pull-outs which has been pleasing,’ says MacPhee. ‘We lost Oliver Norwood due to his involvement in the play-off final with Fulham but, other than that, we’ve got a strong group here.
‘Steven Davis’s foot is in a boot and Kyle Lafferty has had a problem with his Achilles, so they are enforced absentees but everyone else is here.
‘We’ve got Gareth McAuley and Aaron Hughes here, both at 38. They played against Panama and will be in the team for Costa Rica, too. Jonny Evans is here, and he has a clause in his contract at West Brom that could allow him to move to one of the big clubs this summer.
‘It does dispel a few of the myths that these are stupid games. My first involvement with Northern Ireland was on a similar tour when we played Uruguay at a time when we were going through a period of no success. Michael always holds that trip up as being so important in bringing us on.’
While O’Neill can call upon a Premier League thoroughbred like Evans, he can afford no snobbery in filling out his squad from a shallow pool of eligible talent.
Thus an Everton youth player like Shayne Lavery is given a chance to shine alongside Crusaders’ Gavin Whyte and a goalkeeping contingent that includes Celtic youth Conor Hazard and Motherwell’s No 1...
‘Trevor Carson has been a big plus,’ explains MacPhee. ‘With Michael McGovern not playing at Norwich and Roy Carroll now retired, there is a real opportunity there. We gave a debut to Bailey Peacock-Farrell against Panama and all these lads will benefit from being in a carnival atmosphere like that.
‘It’s the first time Panama have qualified and we were invited to their party.’
After a trying season at Hearts and a busy summer schedule that has already incorporated the birth
You can’t underestimate the legacy of qualification for Euro 2016
of his third child, you might expect MacPhee, 38, to crave rest.
Instead he is preparing to visit another continent as he takes on an additional new consultancy role with the Indian FA, a continuation of the globetrotting tendencies that previously saw him play in the USA, Romania and Japan.
‘I’m getting to see new countries and work in top-level football so this doesn’t feel like a job — I just find the whole thing exciting,’ he added.
‘You get, say, nine games a year with Northern Ireland and it has been such a learning experience.
‘Each trip is also an opportunity. I always try to make contact with local agents and coaches.
‘You never know what’s out there — for example the average wage of a player in the Panamanian league is £4,000 a month, so that’s well within the reach of an SPFL Premiership club.
‘There might be a player out here for Hearts, you never know.’
That’s MacPhee — relaxed enough to enjoy the perks of his wandering existence yet always on the job.