JORDAN’S VISION

Jones confident

JORDAN JONES reckons Northern Ireland have turned a corner after bossing rivals the Republic in Thursday’s Irish derby match.

The Euro 2016 finalists meet Austria today in their last Nations League game – but have already shifted their focus to building momentum ahead of Euro 2020 after falling into a mini slump.

Form this season has led to Northern Ireland finishing last in their group – regardless of the Windsor Park result this afternoon.

Four defeats in five preceded Thursday’s draw in Dublin – but Jones reckons the fact Northern Ireland dominated the match has boosted confidence.

The Kilmarnock midfielder, 24, said: “You know what to expect coming into these big games and I think all the players handled it well. We were the better team against the Republic on Thursday and should have won that game.

“We just need to go into the Austria match in the right frame of mind and try to win it.

“Michael O’Neill has made it clear we need to start winning games again.”

Skipper Steven Davis was equally impressed with his side’s showing against the Republic.

The Southampton midfielder said: “The win was there for us. I think we played very well and caused them problems and on the balance of play we had the better of the game. We had some good chances but need to be more clinical.

“It was nice to get a result but we should have won.”

And despite not getting the win, boss O’Neill was encouraged by some of the performances from his younger players and how they integrated in to the group.

He said: “We played the other night with a starting line-up of five core players and six who are in single figures in terms of caps. We’re progressing, those boys are stepping up in international football.

“I’ve been delighted with how the players have come in. We’ve got good competition for places in a lot of areas on the pitch, at times we haven’t had that.”

Although today’s game is effectively a dead rubber, the Northern Ireland boss is still hopeful of a positive result – but not at the cost of injury.

He said: “I’ll pick a team to win the game but I won’t take unnecessary risks.

“We’ll be cautious to an extent, we don’t want to lose players.

“A Thursday-Sunday double-header is a challenge but equally a lot of players haven’t played a lot of club football and they want the games.”