Michael O'Neill: No short-term answer to Northern Ireland woes

Michael O'Neill admitted there will be no quick fix to Northern Ireland’s problems after a young side were beaten 4-0 by Finland to make it seven defeats from nine in their Euro 2024 qualifying campaign.

An encouraging display in the first 40 minutes in Helsinki unravelled after Isaac Price conceded a penalty shortly before the break, dispatched by Joel Pohjanpalo, with Daniel Hakans adding another just three minutes into the second half.

Late goals from substitutes Teemu Pukki and Robin Lod added to the misery as Northern Ireland suffered the heaviest defeat of what has already been an arduous campaign, ruined by a crippling injury list, in which the only respite has come with home and away wins over minnows San Marino.

"We came into the group as a pot five team and we will finish as a pot five team," O’Neill said. "We are in the third tier of European football now in terms of where we are in the Nations League as well, and that is where we are.

"We are going to have to build a team from this point and try and build it forward. We have slipped from where we were previously, that is pretty evident to see.

"We have lost a lot of experienced players over the last three years but also we have lost a lot of experienced players specific to this campaign and that is really damaging. We just have to try and build a team.

"It is not going to be easy, we don’t have players on the outside. We need some of the experienced players back to give us a hand, but there is no short-term answer to that, there is no short-term fix for where we are."

Ross McCausland made his debut from the start in Helsinki with Michael Forbes coming on as a late substitute to earn his first cap, taking the number of players to have featured for Northern Ireland in