{"id":167290,"date":"2025-06-08T09:54:10","date_gmt":"2025-06-08T09:54:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/167290\/"},"modified":"2025-06-08T09:54:10","modified_gmt":"2025-06-08T09:54:10","slug":"crystal-palace-starlet-justin-devenny-revels-in-key-role-in-northern-irelands-narrow-defeat-to-denmark","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/167290\/","title":{"rendered":"Crystal Palace starlet Justin Devenny revels in key role in Northern Ireland’s narrow defeat to Denmark"},"content":{"rendered":"

Justin Devenny dazzled during Northern Ireland’s close 2-1 friendly defeat by Denmark<\/a> on Saturday, standing out even more impressively considering he was playing out of position at just 21-years-old.<\/p>\n

Donning the Crystal Palace midfielder’s<\/a> jersey, Devenny took on his second start for the international team, occupying the left wing-back spot to tackle the challenge of marking Lazio’s nimble winger Gustav Isaksen.<\/p>\n

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Despite the unfamiliar role, Devenny made a pivotal contribution to Northern Ireland’s early lead via an own goal from Pierre-Emile Hojbjerg and acquitted himself well in defence. Although Isaksen found the net with an equaliser, it was only after moving to a central role that he managed to bypass Devenny.<\/p>\n

READ MORE:<\/b> Championship clubs chasing Northern Ireland midfielder Ethan Galbraith<\/a><\/p>\n

READ MORE:<\/b> Two of Cliftonville’s Irish Cup heroes set for big money moves<\/a><\/p>\n

“It was a new position for me but I enjoyed it and wherever I play for the team I’m willing to do a shift,” expressed Devenny after the match.<\/p>\n

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Just two days into the training camp, Michael O’Neill had mused about deploying Devenny as a wing-back, prompting some focused preparation.<\/p>\n

“It was maybe the second day (of training camp) that Michael had told me he was thinking of playing me there and we did a few bits and bobs in training,” he explained. “I thought I did well and then when he told me I’d be starting out I tried to understand the position a bit more.”<\/p>\n

Devenny conceded that midfield is his preference position-wise yet acknowledges the importance of adaptability, adding: “To be fair I’m familiar with it from Palace as well. I know the roles and responsibilities of it and it’s just putting that into place.”<\/p>\n

His willingness to be versatile is clearly a trait the management values highly, and it’s a skill set Devenny is keen to continue developing.<\/p>\n

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“I enjoy it,” he shared. “It is a different experience for me. There’s probably a bit more high speed running. I was able to get on the ball and try to understand the runs from my team-mates and try to pick them out.<\/p>\n

“I thought first half I did well and in the second half there was a lot of work off the ball but you have to be prepared to do that in international football.”<\/p>\n

Northern Ireland snatched the lead early when Devenny intercepted a poor pass from Lucas Hogsberg, his subsequent deflected cross leading to an own goal by Hojbjerg who was under duress from Shea Charles.<\/p>\n

“That’s a big part of being a full-back in this team,” Devenny stated regarding the goal. “You have to be aggressive when there is a chance to win the ball. I seen it and took off and intercepted it. I saw the goal and was going to shoot but squared it across and thankfully it went in.”<\/p>\n

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Devenny, who could have played for Scotland as well, came into this squad fresh from hoisting the FA Cup with Crystal Palace<\/a>. Following his debut for Palace in November, just days ahead of his Northern Ireland introduction, he’s now become a key figure for both sides.<\/p>\n

“I’m loving it,” he enthused. “Northern Ireland showed trust in me and since I’ve come in that’s my fourth game. The lads are brilliant and the coaching staff are brilliant. I want to learn and improve.<\/p>\n

“I haven’t started at Windsor yet. I came on against Switzerland so hopefully I’ll get a start (against Iceland on Tuesday). It’s a special atmosphere and the fans are great so I can’t wait for that.”<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Justin Devenny dazzled during Northern Ireland’s close 2-1 friendly defeat by Denmark on Saturday, standing out even more…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":167291,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5011],"tags":[1925,365,69973,69972,69029,1144,69974,2600,16,15],"class_list":{"0":"post-167290","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-northern-ireland","8":"tag-crystal-palace","9":"tag-denmark","10":"tag-gustav-isaksen","11":"tag-justin-devenny","12":"tag-michael-oneill-2","13":"tag-northern-ireland","14":"tag-shea-charles","15":"tag-switzerland","16":"tag-uk","17":"tag-united-kingdom"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/114647142450151128","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/167290","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=167290"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/167290\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/167291"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=167290"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=167290"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=167290"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}