Northern Ireland Under-21s boss Tommy Wright ranks his side’s 0-0 draw with England on Friday night alongside any result he has achieved in football.
The underage side went into the Euro 2025 qualifier as huge underdogs but frustrated their visitors to the Ballymena Showgrounds and could have even won the game on the counter late on.
An international goalkeeper in his playing days, Wright was involved in a famous rear-guard action when Northern Ireland secured a 1-1 draw away to then European champions Germany in 1996, while as manager of St Johnstone he enjoyed plenty of memorable days too, including their first Scottish Cup in 2014.
He enjoyed none of those memorable occasions more than he did Friday night.
“I said to the players, I’ve had many big wins in my [playing] career and as a manger, winning the Scottish Cup, winning at Ibrox, winning at Celtic, beating Rosenberg over two legs in my first two games at St Johnstone.
“Even though we didn’t win the game, that’s right up there with me.
“To come against that array of talent and come out 0-0 is an unbelievable achievement.”
What pleased Wright most was his players’ application throughout the contest.
While Ben Futcher’s side enjoyed the majority of possession and opportunities, Pierce Charles was largely comfortable in the Northern Ireland goal and England created no gilt-edged openings. When NI used their high press aggressively, they forced England into mistakes and were a threat on the break.
“We want to try and develop a culture where Northern Ireland don’t just get 10 men behind the ball,” said Wright.
“At times we had to do that, but we don’t want to do it for 90 minutes because it normally ends up with the same result, a 1-0 defeat. Yes, they penetrated, yes, they had chances, but I wouldn’t say they had a glaring miss or anything.
“Pierce made good saves, maybe one exceptional save, we put bodies on the line and in the end with England pressing forward we knew we could hit them on the counter attack which we nearly did.
“Now going forward, can we have more possession? Can we do better when we win the ball back?”
Northern Ireland will be back in Ballymena on Tuesday night to take on group leaders Ukraine who after Friday’s victory over Serbia have played seven and won seven in these qualifiers.
While NI’s hopes of making it to Euro 2025 are over, Wright has been encouraged by the progress he has witnessed through the campaign with the England draw coupled with a surprise win away to Serbia in March.
“The longer we’ve been in with the group, we’ve been able to work with them,” he added.
“It’s not like a restart in every camp with them, they remember the things that they worked on before. Every camp there has been an improvement.
“It’ll be a tough game on Tuesday and we have to go again.”
