O'Neill takes positives from Iceland defeat as debutants impress

Martin O’Neill reflected on the positives, including a promising 32 minutes from new cap Daryl Horgan, from the international friendly defeat to Iceland on Tuesday night.

O'Neill spoke to the assembled media at length, which was many multiples of the time spent by the Icelandic manager, Heimir Hallgrimsson, moments earlier.

A 21^st minute goal by Hordur Magnusson was enough to see O'Neill's Ireland side suffer defeat for the first time to Iceland in the eight meetings between the two sides over the years.

Even still, O’Neill was able to glean a number of positives out of the game.

“Positives from tonight,” said O'Neill. “A number made debuts and it was great for them to be on the field wearing an Irish shirt but the fact is that we lost the game.

“Yes while it was an uncompetitive match it would still have been nice to win after Friday evening. It was disappointing to concede from a set piece.

“In the second half we had a lot of the ball and I thought Horgan was very good in the second half for the time he was on the pitch.

“He caused a few problems and he managed to whip a couple of dangerous balls into the box but unfortunately for us we couldn’t finish them off. “

This was not the only time O’Neill would mention the contribution of the former Dundalk player during the course of the press conference as it was evident to see that the player had made quite an impression on the Derry native in his 32 minutes of football.

Aside from that, it was tough to get any more nuggets of information, with O’Neill saying he would prefer to keep his thoughts private for the dressing room, yet later in the conference he did name another few players who will have impressed him.

Tonight’s man of the match Robbie Brady was a positive for O’Neill, who missed the Burnley defenders presence on Friday night against the Welsh.

In the absence of Seamus Coleman, Brady was handed the captain’s armband and he impressed the manager with his display.

“He took the captaincy very well indeed. He is a very good character, a good footballer, and had a wonderful Euros. I think he wants to do the same at club level and recapture that sort of form. “

Many supporters still believe that Brady is a wasted talent at left back when he should be further up the field.

O’Neill responded by saying the thought did cross his mind it was better for him to play there as he wanted to give other players a game.

“Brady in a more advanced position?; Yes it did cross my mind. He can play in a couple of positions, if you were looking at it from a club view point.

“Jeff is playing as well, and with Stephen Ward playing a lot of games, that is three players from Burnley.

“So I think at times you need to look at it from a club viewpoint, not that it is a major thing but it is a fact in these decisions.

“I said Hourihane would start in the game and playing somebody like Jeff alongside him left him there.”

Tonight was the first cap for many and O’Neill admitted that it will be difficult for them to deal with the new experience in a short spell of time, but some excelled including the two Cork men who started the game.

“Tonight will be great for some of those players who played. It is important for some of them to know what it is like to play at international level and trying to do well in the length of time that you are on the pitch. Sometimes it can be pretty difficult.

“John Egan did fine, he had a cut head after a couple of minutes in the match but he got bandaged up and did fine. Hourihane will have benefitted from the experience.

“What will happen now is that the players will return to their clubs and resume their club duties and it is very important that some of them steer clear of injury.

“Hopefully when June comes around we will have some of them back but who knows? It is in the lap of the gods.”

Regarding the goal conceded, O’Neill put it pretty bluntly that it wasn’t good.

“We didn’t do well enough, the wall was set up with the players in it and I think we know that we just have to do better.”

As the press conference was ending and people were starting to glance at their watches in the hope of beating press deadlines, O’Neill gave a very positive update on Seamus Coleman following his horror injury onFriday night.

“Seamus is doing much better today. I went to see him today. He is in better spirits and I think that is much to do with the fact that he still has his family around him.

“He has brother, wife, youngster all keeping him pretty busy but he is doing much better today and he is hopefully getting out today I think.

“It is very encouraging to see and positive, very, very positive indeed. It is a tough injury but he will get over and if anybody will get over it, Seamus will as Seamus is the man.”