The magic behind Mike’s green and white warriors
LIBERTY’S Irish pub in Villefranche- surSaone, outside Lyon, last weekend. The Northern Ireland press corps are enjoying a drink and receive a message.
It’s from model Vanessa Chung, Kyle Lafferty’s wife. She’s bored in her hotel and fancies a night out. Half an hour later, Mrs Lafferty turns up with her parents and spends the rest of the evening happily chatting away to journalists.
There are no unwanted questions, no awkward moments. The thought occurs that Coleen Rooney and the England WAGs are unlikely to put themselves in a similar position. But this is Northern Ireland. Ordinary people enjoying an extraordinary moment here in France.
Reaching the last 16 at their first ever European Championship finals has been a remarkable achievement by Michael O’Neill — a coach with previous managerial experience at Brechin City and Shamrock Rovers — and a squad with just five Premier League players.
The rest have been pulled together from the lower divisions of English football and Scotland, like Michael McGovern, the Hamilton Academical goalkeeper who produced a world- class display against the Germans in Paris on Tuesday.
O’Neill has moulded them into an outfit capable of taking on any team, but there is more to the Northern Ireland fairy tale than sheer heart and determination.
MAGIC MIKE
IT was no surprise when the IFA inserted a £750,000 compensation clause into O’Neill’s new contract in March. They know he will be in demand after Euro 2016. The 46-year-old is an astute coach with a growing reputation in the game.
But O’Neill’s man management has been equally important in this success story. The heart-to-heart he had with Lafferty following his sending-off against Portugal in 2013 is known to have resurrected the striker’s international career and led to his seven goals in qualifying.
The manager also revived an ail- ing team by coaxing Aaron Hughes out of international retirement, persuading Chris Baird to carry on, and bringing Roy Carroll out of the wilderness six years after his last cap due to loss of form and personal problems.
The human touch was evident again this week when winger Paddy McCourt revealed the support he had received from O’Neill after telling the manager he would not be available for Euro 2016 because his wife Laura had been struck down with a brain tumour.
SHORT ORDERS
O’NEILL condenses all his team talks into 15 minutes. Any more, he says, and the players will stop listening.
With the help of his analyst, Scotsman Austin MacPhee, he puts together short video presentations to make his point and then emails the players individual files on the opponent they will be fac- ing so they are totally prepared. Such was the emphasis on Robert Lewandowski ahead of the Poland game that an entire video segment in the team meeting was dedicated to ‘Restricting Robert’.
Out on the training pitch, firstteam coach and Motherwell No 2 Stephen Robinson is O’Neill’s mouthpiece, while assistant Jimmy Nicholl offers the arm around the shoulder approach and keeps the players entertained with tales about Billy Bingham’s World Cup heroes of the 1980s.
Nicholl also organises games for the squad. In Slovakia earlier this month, O’Neill revealed that they had been playing the board game Balderdash.
More recently, Nicholl has set up a version of pool at the team’s chateau retreat. ‘I’m not telling you what it’s called,’ said O’Neill yesterday. ‘They haven’t forgiven me for telling you they play Balderdash yet!’ He gave the players the day off to spend by the pool following their exertions against Germany.
Now they’re in the last 16, O’Neill acknowledged they will have to start practising penalties, but he added: ‘They don’t us asking them if they want to take one and what number they want to be today.’
THIN GREEN LINE
MUCH has been made of Lafferty’s goals in qualifying, the influence of captain Steven Davis and, on Tuesday night, McGovern’s heroics. But it’s the defence that has been the bedrock of Northern Ireland’s success and, in particular, the three Premier League centre-backs in Gareth McAuley, Jonny Evans and Craig Cathcart.
An injury to Chris Brunt before the tournament led O’Neill to play a back-three against Poland. But Evans switched to left-back against Ukraine and Germany, with veteran Hughes coming back on the right, and it has seen them progress.
GREEN AND WHITE ARMY
AT a tournament blighted by the spectre of hooliganism, Northern Ireland’s fans have been a source of inspiration to the team despite the death of two supporters here.
Darren Rodgers, 24, fell onto a rocky beach in Nice, and the team arranged to have his shirt from Braid United in Ballymena in the dugout for their win over Ukraine when 64-year- old Robert Rainey collapsed and died of a heart attack.
In a country with a population of just 1.7million, the bond between the players and fans is genuine.
Before Euro 2016, members of the squad made personal calls to some fans to thank them for their support, although one didn’t believe it was really captain Davis on the other end of the line and hung up.
There is also an interactive screen at the team’s base at Chateau De Pizay, and when the players saw a video that has gone viral of the young fan who burst into tears when his father bought him tickets for the Ukraine game, they tracked him down on social media and called to wish him a happy 10th birthday.
Of course, the other impact Northern Ireland’s supporters have made on Euro 2016 is the tribute song to Will Grigg, even though the Wigan striker has yet to play a minute.
Germany star Mats Hummels admitted to being a fan and sought out Grigg after Tuesday’s game in Paris to ask for his shirt.