Michael O'Neill believes Northern Ireland should approach their World Cup qualifying play-off in March full of optimism after the Group A campaign.
Northern Ireland finished in third place behind group winners Germany and Slovakia, their route to the play-offs instead coming via the Nations League, but they ended with a win on Monday as Jamie Donley’s penalty secured a 1-0 victory over Luxembourg.
Earlier in the campaign, Northern Ireland pushed Germany hard in a 1-0 home defeat, beat Slovakia in Belfast and then lost Friday’s reverse fixture in Kosice 1-0 to a controversial late goal. The margins between second and third place were fine.
O’Neill will now wait for Thursday’s draw to discover who his side will face in the spring, but there will be no fear of high-ranked opponents.
"I said to the players, if we’d defended two corners better, or if the referee had given a foul (in the build-up to Tomas Bobcek’s goal for Slovakia on Friday) we could have been going into the game on eight points while Germany and Slovakia would be on 10," he said.
"We’ve been very, very competitive. That’s the most important thing. I think at times we’ve been a little bit unfortunate with the games that have gone against us and a little bit unfortunate with the players who have been unavailable due to injury.
"But over the piece we’ve made a lot of progress and that gives us a lot of optimism for the games in March."
Whoever Northern Ireland end up paired with in Thursday’s draw, the spring will bring significant challenges for O’Neill.
The March international window comes at a crunch period in the domestic season for players, at a stage in the campaign where there is generally a higher risk of injury and limited time to prepare.
"That’s what you get as an international manager," O’Neill said. "The schedule is the schedule. I think the first games are on the Thursday, which is always tricky, particularly away from home.
"But we’ve nailed down our preparation and one of the things we’ve been very, very consistent on now for some time is the style of play and what we’re asking players to do, so we’re not coming in and changing dramatically what we’re doing.
"Sometimes we have to change personnel, but we’ll be ready to play regardless of who it is."
O’Neill made six changes to his side on Monday, several of them enforced. Jamie McDonnell made his first start in midfield, while Patrick Kelly came off the bench to make his debut – all part of a process to build the depth in a still young squad.
"The only way you can progress in international football is to play," O’Neill said. "You can’t play for 10 minutes and then you’re ready. There’s a process. The reason why Isaac Price, Shea Charles and Conor Bradley look like seasoned internationals is because they’ve played consistently for three years…
"We only have 10 games a year. We want to try to use them as much as possible to get players minutes at international level, but really their development is driven by their clubs and that’s something we’re not in control of."
Watch Republic of Ireland v Switzerland in the FIFA Under-17 World Cup on Tuesday from 2.30pm on RTÉ2 and the RTÉ Player. Follow a live blog on the RTÉ News App and on rte.ie/sport
Watch Andorra v Republic of Ireland in UEFA Under-21 European Championship qualifying on Tuesday from 6pm on RTÉ2 and the RTÉ Player.
Watch the FIFA World Cup play-off draw on Thursday from 12pm on RTE Player and the RTÉ News Channel. Follow a live blog on the RTÉ News App and on rte.ie/sport.
