“It was more important for me that we develop players than get a draw against Austria. So I had to make a sacrifice in that.”
Northern Ireland’s Euro 2022 adventure has always been about the bigger picture, whether it’s the legacy of this current group or the next generation coming through.
There have been several core players who have guided Northern Ireland to this historic point – look no further than captain Marissa Callaghan Julie Nelson – and now that their Euro journey will come to an end on Friday, attentions are already turning to the future.
With Northern Ireland already a goal down with 10 minutes to play, Kenny Shiels, who said the quote at the top of this page, decided the time was right to introduce youth into the game.
The average age of Northern Ireland’s five substitutes – Emily Wilson, Caitlin McGuinness, Joely Andrews, Louise McDaniel and Abbie Magee – is just 20.4, and Shiels admitted he wanted to bring young players on for their own development.
“Some of us are coming to the end of our careers and it is incredible we are here,” added Callaghan.
“I’ll be forever grateful for having this opportunity, and what an opportunity for our young players.
“We are constantly learning and getting better, and being at tournaments like this will be amazing for their development.
“We have a fantastic future ahead of us and, as you can see, we have some real young talent and pure talent coming through.
“This is definitely not the end of the journey and it’s just the beginning for a lot of the players.”
Callaghan, 36, added that playing against the likes of Norway, England and Austria can only benefit Northern Ireland going forward.
“This is in its infancy and have have only been together for three years,” Callaghan added.
“It’s unfortunate we didn’t have Kenny 10 years ago, but we have improved massively and we have inspired a full nation of people, especially young girls and boys who want to play the game.
“We will continue to improve and hopefully we, against the odds, compete against the top nations.”
To match Austria brings me comfort
Shiels who took over as Northern Ireland manager in 2019, spoke post-match about his desire to improve the international underage teams so that talent would filter through to the senior squad in the coming years.
“The developmental processes are to improve what you have. That’s what I’m trying to do,” he said.
“If we can improve to get better and then gradually work our way up. I felt five to 10 years was a good process, we are only three years into it and we have got to this level far too quickly.
“We now have to re-establish ourselves and look at how many development players we can bring in on top of what we have.
“There were periods in the game where we matched them and that’s a good sign that we have made slight progress, in fact we are making massive progress if you look at where we came from.”
Although Northern Ireland fell to defeat in their second Euro 2022 game in Southampton, Shiels says he takes “some comfort” in the performance of his side.
“Austria are an established nation in women’s football, beaten in the semi-finals of the last tournament and they have a fantastic academy, one of the best of Europe.
“Most of their players play in the Bundesliga, it’s very upper in comparison to us. For us to match them for so long brings some comfort to me.
“I could never have dreamed when I took over that we would be able to match the likes of Austria and feel we could possibly have got something. I felt we got close to them for quite a period in the game.
“It was really hard for us but I felt like there were periods of the game where looked like we were going to get an equaliser.”
