Michael O'Neill hopes 'real player' Jamie Donley can help provide solution to 'problem position' for Northern Ireland

The 20-year-old kept his cool from 12 yards just before the half-time whistle as Michael O’Neill’s men finished the campaign on a high note.

Donley was tasked to lead the line after injury ruled out Jamie Reid and he had a bright start to proceedings, before having a goal disallowed as Ethan Galbraith was flagged for offside in the build-up.

The successful penalty conversion marked Donley’s first goal in Northern Ireland colours and O’Neill spoke highly of the Antrim-born star, who has endured a difficult spell on loan at Stoke City from parent club Tottenham Hotspur so far this season.

“Jamie’s a real player with real quality,” he said. “I wanted to see him as a nine – there’s no secret that’s a problem position for us.

"He brings different attributes from some of the others. I thought he did really well: he’s clever, his link-up play is good, he took the penalty well, and you saw the finish on the disallowed goal – Ethan was offside, but the quality from Jamie was obvious.

“He's just a bit unfortunate that the loan he's on at the minute from Spurs to Stoke is not going as would have been planned.

"I think he's not been given very many opportunities either, to be honest. Hopefully that situation resolves itself in January.”

When asked what Donley’s technical and physical attributes can provide to his squad over his other options, O’Neill replied: “He's a really high technical level of a player. Great left foot, real awareness, great vision. He's just a really good footballer, as simple as that.

"I watched him at Orient last year in many games; I thought he was the best player on the pitch.

"He just looks like that player that has been at a high level as a young player at a club like Tottenham all his days.

“Obviously he's still a Tottenham player at this minute in time...he's just got himself in a situation where his loan has not gone as well as he'd hoped.

"That's happened to many players. Many players have gone through that situation where the loan is not always a success. But they learn from that as well. He's only 20 years of age, so he's got it all ahead of him.”

Whilst Donley scored his first for the Green and White Army – there was a senior debut for former Coleraine man Patrick Kelly who was deputised from the bench with less than ten minutes remaining.

It marked a fairytale moment for the Portstewart man who moved to Barnsley in the summer from West Ham United.

"His route is probably a bit more similar to mine really...being transferred from Coleraine to a Premier League club at that point in time,” O’Neill explained.

"I felt it was the right thing for him to leave and go to Barnsley. And that's not why he's in the squad – he's in the squad because he's made a real impression there.

"He's just got to continue playing games, and if he continues to play games and play well, then obviously he's knocking on the door of the squad.”