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Michael O’Neill praised Jamie Donnelly’s “real quality” after the 20-year-old scored his first international goal. northern ireland win 1-0 luxembourg In their final World Cup Group A qualifier.
Donnelly scored from the penalty spot in the 44th minute after Christopher Martins was penalized for holding Ciaron Brown, and on-loan to fuel The forward saw a strike ruled out before Ethan Galbraith was ruled offside in the build-up.
In a much-changed Northern Ireland line-up, Donnelly’s performance was a bright spot on a dreary night at Windsor Park where it was clear little progress was being made in the game – any chances of a top-two finish gone but a play-off place confirmed.
“Jamie is a real player, with real quality,” O’Neill said. “I wanted to see him as a nine. There’s no secret that the nine is a problem position for us and I think Jamie has different characteristics to some of the other strikers.
“I thought he did really well in the game. He’s clever, his link-up play is good. He took the penalty well and you saw the end of that goal that was disallowed. Ethan was offside, but you saw the quality displayed by Jamie in that moment.”
Donnelly caught sight of him during Leyton Orient Last season, but this campaign has been more difficult with limited playing time at Stoke, where he has made only six appearances so far.
“He’s unfortunate with the loan he’s on at the moment Spurs O’Neill said, “Stoke are not going the way they planned and have not been given many chances, but hopefully the situation will sort itself out in January.”
“He’s a player of a really high technical level, with a fantastic left foot, real awareness and great vision, just a very good footballer – that’s all. I watched him in a number of games at Orient last year and I thought he was the best player on the field…
“He’s 20 years old and she’s way ahead of him.”
It was a slow night at Windsor Park after Friday’s 1-0 defeat at Slovakia ended their hopes of finishing second in the group.
Despite the flat conditions, Northern Ireland went on to win to ensure passage to the play-offs in March.
“We had to look at the game from his perspective,” O’Neill said. “What happened that night, you have to put it behind you and we did that. The most important thing was to go out and win the game.”
In six changes to his team, O’Neill left out Trae Hume, Justin Devaney, Josh Magennis and the injured Jamie Reid, who were all on yellow cards.
O’Neill admitted on Sunday he was not 100 per cent clear about whether those players would risk suspension for March if booked – a request for clarification went unanswered.
When the teamsheet was printed it indicated that there was no risk of a ban for any player in the team.
However, O’Neill took no interest in the question of whether he was left to choose his own team for competitive play despite the ambiguity over the rules.
He said: “It’s irrelevant to me now.”