Stuart Dallas: I'm grateful for the times I had playing for Northern Ireland and I see similar characteristics between the current squad and the one which qualified for Euro 2016

The 33-year-old - who announced his retirement from the game earlier this month - admits he was excited by what he watched in the recent friendlies against Romania and Scotland.

Dallas won 62 caps for Northern Ireland and was an unsung hero for his country as he was able to play in a variety of positions.

Northern Ireland are back in action in June for friendlies against Spain and Andorra and Dallas has warned about keeping expectations realistic as O'Neill tries to get more experience into his young squad.

"I did the TV a couple of weeks ago for the Scotland game and I talked about seeing similarities in this squad with our successful team," he said

"I'm not saying this squad is going to be successful but there are certainly similarities there.

"That Scotland display we defended really, really well and we had running power on the sides when we needed it. It was a typical Northern Ireland performance.

"I'm excited by it, there's a lot of youth in the squad. It's important that we don't put a lot of pressure on them as this takes time to build.

"But I'm excited going forward, I just think the next number of years is going to be good."

Dallas gave special praise to full-back Conor Bradley who has emerged as a top performer for both Northern Ireland and Liverpool in recent months, saying that he has the attributes both on and off the pitch to continue his rise to stardom.

He remarked: "The journey Conor has been on has been incredible.

"His life has changed in the past year because he was on loan at Bolton and did really well, now he's been given his chance at Liverpool and he's never looked back.

"He's probably been one of their best players since coming into the team.

"I'm delighted for Conor because he's a good lad, and I'm sure when you speak to anybody they all say the same thing that he wants to learn, and working with a manager like he has at Liverpool and the players around him the mentality he brings to the group is incredible.

"I'm so happy for him, he's obviously had a difficult period over the last few months. He's done really well and the sky's the limit for him. He can go on to bigger and better things as well because he has his head screwed on and he's down to earth as well."

Whilst acknowledging playing in the Premier League and winning promotion with Leeds United were notable highlights, Dallas says representing his country was always an honour.

"People know how much it means to me to have played for Northern Ireland. I'm sad that I won't get the opportunity to do that again, but I'm grateful for the times we had,” he commented.

"I came into the squad when it was on an upward curve and we enjoyed success in those couple of years albeit the last few have been a bit of a struggle as we rebuilt.

"I'm delighted to see the last few results have brought a bit more positivity back in again.”