O’neill: NI don’t fear the Hampden roar
Boss says young side will relish hostile atmosphere against Scots
MICHAEL O’neill believes his young Northern Ireland side have ‘everything to gain’ when they face Scotland tonight and is confident that his inexperienced players will be able to cope with the famous Hampden Park roar.
It is nine years since the sides met so, while international friendlies don’t tend to get the juices flowing, this British battle is eagerly awaited by both sets of fans, who are sure to create quite the atmosphere in Glasgow.
Scotland may be going to Euro 2024 but enter the match on the back of a 4-0 defeat away to the Netherlands on Friday while Northern Ireland, who haven’t qualified for this year’s Finals, enjoyed an encouraging 1-1 draw in Romania the same evening.
Around 1,500 Northern Ireland supporters are expected to make the short trip with the Tartan Army determined to drown them out.
Quizzed on whether he was worried about his young team and the Hampden factor, O’neill said: “Not really and that’s not in any way being overly confident. I think regarding the atmosphere in the stadium, the players are looking forward to it.
“If you don’t want to play here on a night like this, you would seriously have to question why you are in the game.
“We played in Bucharest (versus Romania) in front of 30,000 and it was an intimidating atmosphere and we played in Copenhagen (against Denmark) in front of 40,000 in June last year and for lads like Isaac (Price) and Shea (Charles), they were able to handle the atmosphere and the occasion.
“I think one thing you get with youth is a nice naivety so they just look forward to being involved in the game and challenging themselves against players who are established at this level.”
O’neill felt Scotland’s 4-0 loss to the Dutch was harsh.
“They played very well for the first half hour of the game, could quite easily have gone ahead, didn’t go ahead and then maybe for the goals at the end, it is a little bit of a combination of you are making substitutes in the game,” said O’neill.
“We lost a game 4-0 in Finland (in November) and I was slated for it but it was harsh on us. It was the same scenario.
“We lost a goal either side of half time and the 4-0 scoreline was very harsh on a young side.
“Scotland have qualified comfortably (for Euro 2024) from a group with Norway which could have proved quite difficult and they’ve had brilliant results here against Spain and some other big nations along the way so yes, they’ll be keen to prove a point.
“As I said to the players, that’s the nature of it — we have to be ready for that.
“It will be a test for a young side. But these games are great for us — we have everything to gain, in that it is a team very much in its infancy playing against a very established team.”
While centre-back Daniel Ballard is back in the squad after missing the Romania match due to the birth of his son, Jamal Lewis and Ross Mccausland have not recovered from injury to join up.
That means O’neill is likely to stick with most of the same starting XI from Bucharest with potentially Liverpool’s Conor Bradley being moved into a midfield role and Trai Hume switching to right wing back to accommodate Sunderland team-mate Ballard.
O’neill lives in Scotland, played club football here and was wanted several years ago by the Scottish FA, so is the game at Hampden more special for him than others?
He replied: “Any of the home nations is a special game I think because we don’t play each other very often in friendlies now and the days of the Home Championships are long ago, so I suppose it is a little bit.
“I like to see Scotland doing well and I’ll look forward to seeing Scotland in the tournament (Euro 2024). I have a good relationship with (manager) Steve (Clarke) and his staff but equally we want to come here, play well and win the game.
“I don’t think there is any extra real edge to it but it is a game we will be well prepared for and it will be a big test for us because we are playing against a very experienced international team and we are a very inexperienced international team and a very