How Michael O'Neill's Northern Ireland experiences helped inspire Blackburn in Middlesbrough draw
Michael O'Neill, head coach of Blackburn Rovers watches on(Image: Phil Oldham/Shutterstock)Michael O’Neill explained how his experiences as Northern Ireland manager may have helped Blackburn Rovers in their draw against Middlesbrough.O’Neill is dividing his time between trying to keep Blackburn in the Championship this season with his second stint as head coach of Northern Ireland. Given the country have important World Cup qualifiers coming this month, many question marks have been raised as to if he could juggle the demands of both roles.But O’Neill felt his experience in charge of the green and white army may have helped Blackburn against Boro. As so many teams before them, Blackburn defended deep and limited space for Boro, as Kim Hellberg’s side once again struggled for goals in the goalless draw.O’Neill reflected: “I’m very proud of the effort of the players. We knew we’d have to go long periods without the ball today, and it can be hard doing that at home. But the fans reacted in the right way to that.“We had moments with the ball where we could have been better at times, but in terms of our effort and desire to make sure we weren’t beaten, and to take something from one of the top two teams in the league, was great.“You can see why they are where they are in the league. They’re a heavy possession-based team with some very good players. We needed the goalkeeper to make a couple of good saves in the first half, which you’d expect.“But overall, the efforts of the players were magnificent. I’ve done it at international level [with Northern Ireland]. You know when you come up against the top countries, they’re going to have 70-odd per cent possession. I once beat Denmark 2-0 with 26% possession.“It’s not easy to do, but it’s about being clinical when you get your opportunity as well. Today, we had the moments where we could have been a little more clinical. It’s difficult when you put so much work in without the ball though. Overall, I can’t ask any more of them and this is a really positive point.”FOLLOW ON FACEBOOK! Keep up with all the Middlesbrough FC latest via the Gazette's dedicated Facebook pageO’Neill was particularly pleased with the point as he marvelled at the options that his opposite number had. In comparison, O’Neill’s Rovers squad has been left depleted by a number of injuries.O’Neill said: “With all the injuries we have, it makes today feel all the more impressive from the boys. They’re a squad with a different objective from us at this minute in time. They’re going into a situation where they’re bringing some real quality players off the bench as well.“We don’t have that luxury at this minute to do that. Toddy [Cantwell] did, but he’s just back after a month out. He gave us that little bit of quality, stayed on the ball a little bit longer for us than we had been doing up to that point.“But we can only ask what we’ve got. That was a team effort. It was a good structure and good shape, and the players are responsible for that; they took the information on board.“We asked them to play a little bit deeper, which as a player is tricky at home because your supporters are always urging you to go forward. We had to be really disciplined today, and I thought they did that extremely well.”----------Here at TeessideLive, we are dedicated to bringing you the best Middlesbrough FC coverage and analysis.Make sure you don't miss out on the latest Boro news by joining our free WhatsApp group. You can get all the breaking news and best analysis sent straight to your phone by clicking here to subscribe.Your information will be hidden, you'll only ever receive messages from the Teesside Live sports team, and you can leave any time you like. To leave our community click on the name at the top of your screen and choose 'Exit group'. If you’re curious, you can read our Privacy Notice .You can also subscribe to our free newsletter service. Click here to be sent all the day's biggest stories.
