Michael O'Neill is convinced his young Northern Ireland side have taken significant strides forward despite the miserable results of an injury-ruined Euro 2024 qualifying campaign.
Northern Ireland go into Friday’s trip to Finland and Monday’s match at home to Denmark, their last Group H fixtures, with - similarly to the Republic of Ireland - only six points from eight qualifiers so far, all of which came from home and away wins over lowly San Marino who sit dead last in FIFA’s world rankings.
With Jonny Evans and Paul Smyth the latest additions to an already lengthy injury list and 20-year-old Rangers winger Ross McCausland called in, 13 of the 26 players in O’Neill’s squad have yet to reach double figures in caps.
Any hope that the returning manager could capitalise on what was seen as a favourable qualifying draw has long since gone, and this has instead been a campaign about developing young players for future battles.
And O’Neill is convinced that, whatever the results might say, considerable progress has been made.
Shea Charles will miss Friday’s match in Helsinki through suspension, but O’Neill picked out the 20-year-old, who joined Southampton from Manchester City in the summer, as a "perfect example".
"Shea’s played the most minutes in this campaign for us," said O’Neill. "He came in in March as a 19-year-old who hadn’t played a single minute of first-team football.
"Now he’s played a lot of international football in a short space of time, he’s had a big move for a lot of money for a young player, all since March.
"I see a lot of the younger players growing. It’s been disappointing that Conor (Bradley) has only been available for three games out of the 10, but I see more positives in the group than negatives.
"Daniel Ballard has only been available for four of the eight games so far. As much as we’ve missed the older players we’ve missed the younger players at times because I think this campaign, not only was it a breakthrough campaign for some of them, it was a real chance for them to establish themselves.
"But overall as a team I think we work on a consistent basis on the type of team that we want to be and we’ll continue to do that. As disappointed as we are with the results, I have to look slightly deeper at where we’re going as a team."
Friday’s fixture takes Northern Ireland back to the Olympic Stadium in Helsinki, where a 1-1 draw back in October 2015 secured top spot for O’Neill’s side as they qualified for Euro 2016.
A colder reception can be expected on Friday night. The Finnish word for November translates as "the month of death" as winter sets in, and the game is forecast to be played in sub-zero temperatures.
"I look forward to all of the games," O’Neill said. "I think this is part of the growth of the team, for the players it’s the challenge of dealing with international football. We’ve had difficult games.
"Kazakhstan was as difficult an away game as you can get in international football. You’ll play bigger teams, bigger players, but it’s the logistics of that and how you deal with that.
"This is all part of it for the players. For a lot of them this is their first experience of playing double-headers in international football. You have to deal with a scenario of going away from home, coming back and then preparing and be ready for a really good Danish team.
"They’re all things that can only help us. The team can only benefit from that experience."
Watch Norway Under-21 vs Republic of Ireland Under-21 in Euro 2025 qualifying on Friday from 4.30pm on RTÉ2 and RTÉ Player and follow a live blog on www.rte.ie/sport and the RTÉ News app
Watch the Netherlands v Republic of Ireland on RTÉ2 and RTÉ Player this Saturday from 7pm, follow a live blog on www.rte.ie/sport and the RTÉ News app or listen to commentary on RTÉ 2fm.
Watch the Women's FAI Cup final, Athlone Town v Shelbourne, on Sunday from 2.15pm on RTÉ2 and RTÉ Player. Follow a live blog on RTÉ.ie/Sport and the RTÉ News app and listen to live radio commentary on Sunday Sport on RTÉ Radio 1.
