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<\/p>\nPrice netted his ninth international goal in the first half on Tuesday to earn a 1-0 friendly victory at home to Iceland setting up Michael O\u2019Neill\u2019s squad perfectly for the crunch double header in three months.<\/p>\n
West Brom star Price has become a proven matchwinner for his country with his sublime first half effort taking him alongside icons George Best, Billy Bingham, Norman Whiteside and Gareth McAuley on the international scoring charts. He\u2019s got there in just 22 appearances and is determined to keep adding to his tally.<\/p>\n
\u201cTo be named among those players is obviously a massive achievement for me,\u201d said the 21-year-old.<\/p>\n
\u201cBut I want to go and get more. I want to go and achieve more. I\u2019ll look to do that in the future.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhen you\u2019re scoring and go over to the fans and see the joy on their faces that\u2019s what you play football for. It\u2019s a crazy feeling and yeah, I want to carry on doing it.\u201d<\/p>\n
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Northern Ireland’s Isaac Price and Brodie Spencer embrace following the Iceland match<\/p>\n
Praising manager O\u2019Neill, after becoming the youngest Northern Ireland player to reach nine goals, Price added: \u201cA lot of it is down to Michael. I\u2019ve been lucky enough to play a lot of games so young, probably when a lot of other managers wouldn\u2019t have played me.<\/p>\n
\u201cHe\u2019s put a lot of trust in me. I\u2019ve played on a regular basis and I think the more I play, the more confident I feel. He\u2019s seen me as a player that\u2019s a goal threat.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019ve probably not had a manager that\u2019s told me that before. I feel like I\u2019ve always been a No.8 or a little bit deeper, trying to get on the ball more.<\/p>\n
\u201cBut when I come here, he\u2019s seen something in me that I probably didn\u2019t see in myself.<\/p>\n
\u201cAlso the ball seems to drop to me quite a lot and I think it\u2019s something about Windsor.\u201d<\/p>\n
When Brodie Spencer was red carded in the 57th minute, Price had to help out at the back including clearing a goalbound effort from Iceland off the line.<\/p>\n
\u201cI think the ball just hit me in the head,\u201d he said smiling.<\/p>\n
\u201cObviously it is never easy when you go down to 10 men, but it\u2019s probably good for us when we go to a place like Germany, where it\u2019s going to feel like we have a man less.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe quality they\u2019ve got, we\u2019re going to have to set up in a different way and we\u2019re probably not going to have a lot of the ball and that\u2019s what we had to deal with when we were down to 10 (versus Iceland). I think we\u2019ve shown that we\u2019re more than capable of that. So yeah, I think it benefited us really.\u201d<\/p>\n
Price is off to Marbella for a well-deserved holiday when no doubt the matches in September will cross his mind.<\/p>\n
Asked if this new era Northern Ireland side is ready to take on the world, the former Everton ace said: \u201cDefinitely. We\u2019ve got a great young side. We are young, but we\u2019ve got a lot of caps between us as well and we don\u2019t really fear anything.<\/p>\n
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<\/p>\n
Northern Ireland\u2019s Isaac Price celebrates scoring against Iceland <\/p>\n
\u201cWe\u2019ll look forward to going into those games. We know it\u2019s going to be tough especially when you have to go to a team like Germany. We know their quality. We\u2019ve witnessed that but I don\u2019t think we\u2019ll roll over. We\u2019ve got enough in our side to go and compete and maybe we need a little bit of luck as well.<\/p>\n
\u201cAs a team we know we need to retain the ball better because ultimately when you play the top teams, you can\u2019t give them all the ball, otherwise they\u2019ll punish you.<\/p>\n
\u201cI know I also need to work on my game and improve in different areas. I\u2019m the first person to say that I don\u2019t think I was that good against Iceland in terms of my performance, but the goal probably helped it.\u201d<\/p>\n
Price, now one of the senior players in the squad, was impressed by the country\u2019s latest debutant Ronan Hale on Tuesday evening.<\/p>\n
\u201cYes, definitely. It was his debut and he\u2019s come in a little bit later than the rest of the lads that have been here but I think he has settled in unbelievably,\u201d said the Baggies star.<\/p>\n
\u201cI thought against Iceland he was great. Sometimes it gets overlooked when maybe a striker doesn\u2019t score a goal but the work rate that he put in was magnificent and I don\u2019t think he\u2019s done himself any harm for the future.\u201d<\/p>\n
In keeping with the spirit in the side, Price\u2019s team-mates were glowing in praise of him.<\/p>\n
Captain Trai Hume said: \u201cHe\u2019s been excellent, I say to him now when he scores I don\u2019t want to celebrate with him because he\u2019s scoring every time he plays.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s great to see. You need that in teams if you want to have a chance of qualifying. You just look at Kyle Lafferty in Euro 2016 qualifying, he was scoring goals non-stop. Isaac will keep on scoring, I\u2019ve no doubt about that.\u201d<\/p>\n
Justin Devenny added: \u201cIsaac\u2019s quality is amazing. You see it in training and no matter how the game is going if the ball falls to Isaac you know there\u2019s a bit of magic in him.\u201d<\/p>\n
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Northern Ireland\u2019s Isaac Price scoring against Iceland in front of the The Kop<\/p>\n
O\u2019Neill said: \u201cI don\u2019t think there are too many players who have come into international football and adapted to it as quickly as Isaac. He has that ability to do something a little bit different and special, and the goal against Iceland was an example of that.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhen you\u2019ve got that type of player who scores goals and has technical ability, you are always concerned about their off the ball play but for him it\u2019s not a problem and he seems to relish it as much as the other side of the game.<\/p>\n
\u201cTwo things \u2014 intelligence and athleticism. They are big. There is a technical level there but he\u2019s an intelligent boy. He understands the game and if you give him an instruction he is able to do it.<\/p>\n
\u201cHe is a very easy player to coach and I think that\u2019s the biggest attribute he has. If you are looking at the profile of a modern day footballer, we\u2019d maybe like to see him a few kilograms heavier, but given his size, and his ability to run he has all the attributes you want in a young player.\u201d<\/p>\n