Michael O'Neill taking positives from disappointing Northern Ireland campaign

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