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Michael O\u2019Neill(Image: \u00a9INPHO\/William Cherry)<\/p>\n“I think come March we\u2019ll be stronger than we were here and we\u2019ll be ready for the play-offs”Michael O\u2019Neill(Image: \u00a9INPHO\/William Cherry)<\/p>\n
Michael O\u2019Neill could not hide his frustration after Northern Ireland\u2019s controversial late 1-0 defeat to Slovakia ended their hopes of a top-two finish in World Cup qualifying Group A, but amid the disappointment, he has seen his young squad take another stride forward.<\/p>\n
O\u2019Neill was left upset that Tomas Bobcek\u2019s stoppage-time goal stood as Northern Ireland claimed a foul in the build-up on Daniel Ballard, later sent off for a second booking, left to wonder if referee Istvan Kovacs simply did not want to disallow a third Slovakian goal, having already chalked off two.<\/p>\n
But although there was the bitter taste of a defeat in Kosice which leaves nothing to play for in Monday\u2019s final Group A fixture against Luxembourg, the night also saw Northern Ireland secure a play-off place via the Nations League thanks to Croatia\u2019s win over the Faroe Islands.<\/p>\n
READ MORE: Northern Ireland v Slovakia player ratings after painful defeat in World Cup qualifier<\/a>READ MORE: More than tactics or formations, Michael O\u2019Neill\u2019s greatest gift is making the shirt matter<\/a><\/p>\n When that was first mentioned to him after Friday\u2019s defeat, O\u2019Neill saw it as scant consolation. But a campaign in which Northern Ireland have beaten Slovakia at home and given Germany a good game home and away has suggested they will not be pushovers come March.<\/p>\n \u201cWe were probably going to end up (in the play-offs) anyway,\u201d O\u2019Neill said. \u201cWhat we wanted to do was prove that we could come here and get what we needed. We wanted to finish in second place in the group. We won\u2019t be able to do that now. That\u2019s our disappointment more than anything else.\u201d<\/p>\n But asked if he could take encouragement, O\u2019Neill added: \u201cIf you look at our team we\u2019ve got kids playing. We\u2019re a very young team in certain areas and we\u2019ve played a game here with obviously important players missing for us. So I think we\u2019ve done extremely well.<\/p>\n \u201cI think come March we\u2019ll be stronger than we were here and we\u2019ll be ready for the play-offs. I\u2019ve no doubts about that.<\/p>\n \u201cWe\u2019ll learn from these experiences. This is a tough place to come. They\u2019re a very experienced team. They\u2019ve got some very, very good players and they were at their strongest, so we had to deal with that and I thought there wasn\u2019t a lot in the game.\u201d<\/p>\n Northern Ireland travelled to Slovakia without four players who started their last qualifier at home to Germany, with Shea Charles, Ali McCann and Brodie Spencer injured and Ethan Galbraith suspended, while goalkeeper Pierce Charles remains out.<\/p>\n Ballard and George Saville will now miss Monday\u2019s game through suspension.<\/p>\n \u201cWe\u2019ve learned in this campaign you can lose a player at a moment\u2019s notice, and we can\u2019t control that,\u201d O\u2019Neill added. \u201cCome March we want to be as strong as we possibly can be, but we wanted that when we played Germany in Cologne (in September), and we had to do that without Daniel Ballard.<\/p>\n \u201cYou\u2019re never in control of that. But hopefully come March, the challenges we\u2019ve had through this group with the players missing, we\u2019ll not have those and we\u2019ll be as strong as we can be.\u201d<\/p>\n