WE FEAR NOBODY

Bradley reckons young hearts can beat any opposition

CONOR BRADLEY believes youth can be a strong point for Northern Ireland as Michael O’neill’s latest transformation of the team takes shape.

The 20-year-old’s first international goal (inset) secured a 1-0 win over Scotland on Tuesday to continue a promising run of results.

Northern Ireland have followed victory over Denmark in the final Euro 2024 qualifier in November with a draw against Romania in Bucharest and a first Hampden triumph in

50 years.

O’neill fielded an inexperienced starting line-up in

Glasgow, including five players under the age of 23, and his players responded with a performance full of spirit as they frustrated Scotland. Bradley said: “We have really taken a lot from this camp. We’ve worked at our game and how Michael wants us to play. We will take a lot of confidence from the results.

“We are a young side and we don’t really fear anybody. We just want to play our game.

“At times we can maybe play a bit more football and be a bit braver on the ball, but that will come with a bit of experience and I think we will just keep getting better.” O’neill has gone through a similar process of blooding young players in international football before, which peaked with qualification for Euro 2016 and two subsequent near-misses.

There is now optimism among the Northern Ireland camp that they can make similar progress ahead of a Nations League campaign in the autumn which sees them face Luxembourg, Bulgaria and Belarus.

Bradley added: “We all knew when Michael came in how good a manager h e was.

Taking a nation of how small we are to a European Championship finals was magnificent, and hopefully we can do it in the future.

“But we are just looking forward to the next games now in the Nations League and hopefully we can do well there.”

The Liverpool player added: “There was a lot of heart and determination from the boys and to get a clean sheet against a very good Scotland team, full of Premier League players, who are going to the Euros, was very good.

“And it was special to score my first goal for my country.”

Bradley was in a more advanced role than his Liverpool position and seized on a mistake from Everton’s Nathan Patterson to curl into the top corner.

“It was definitely something different for me,” he said. “There is still a lot of improvement in my game to play there.

“It’s different to playing my normal right-back role but it’s something I really enjoy, playing a bit further forward, trying to create chances and score goals.”