Bailey Peacock-Farrell insists morale remains high despite dismal Northern Ireland defeats

Adam Cerin’s free-kick condemned them to a home loss to Slovenia on Tuesday as Shea Charles was sent off for two bookable offences.

It was Northern Ireland’s sixth defeat in eight Euro 2024 qualifiers, the only exceptions being wins over minnows San Marino, and their fifth 1-0 reverse of the campaign.

But with the injured Daniel Ballard and the suspended Paddy McNair joining an already extensive list of absentees, it was another game in which Northern Ireland leaned heavily on inexperienced players, with four of those involved eligible for the under-21s and two – Eoin Toal and Brad Lyons – making debuts.

The hope has to be that the pain being taken now pays off in the next qualifying campaign, when Northern Ireland will have a young core already with valuable experience in the bank.

“It is (easy to remain positive),” Peacock-Farrell said. “You can see we’re playing a different style of football, it’s a new team and you can see the positive impact all these players are having on the team.

“That in itself is a real positive. Ultimately we’re not picking up the results we maybe deserve but that’s football. Sometimes you need luck.”

There has been an element of Groundhog Day to Northern Ireland’s campaign so far, with only the 4-2 loss away to Slovenia last month being a game that totally got away from them.

“It’s the third 1-0 defeat at home in the campaign,” Peacock-Farrell added. “It’s really strange because we are in all these games up until the last minute and we are creating really good chances.

“We are playing some really good football, but it’s just that one percent maybe or a bit of luck not going our way.

“If we’d had that, it could have been a completely different campaign, a different story if just a few things went our way, but you have to expect that as a part of football.”

Charles, 19, had started all eight of Northern Ireland’s qualifiers so far, having stepped up in a big way after injury ruled veteran captain Steven Davis out of the entire campaign, but that run will come to an end in Finland next month after his red card.

The Southampton midfielder was shown a yellow card for dissent after the questionable decision to award the free-kick from which Cerin scored, and then saw red after being booked again for a late challenge on Andraz Sporar just before the hour mark.

“It’s really unfortunate he got sent off because he is a really key player in the way that we play,” Peacock-Farrell said. “He’s a top, top player and I can’t wait to see how his career develops.

“That being said, I thought the team did really well coping with 10 men and still being able to create some chances, which is another shining light on the situation.”

Northern Ireland will wrap up their campaign next month with a trip to Helsinki before Denmark visit Windsor Park in the final fixture.

That last game is one that Peacock-Farrell can look forward to after swapping Burnley for AGF Aarhus in a season-long loan move in the summer.

“I played there in Copenhagen in the summer with Northern Ireland and coming into the game next month I’m playing in Denmark,” he said. “It’s funny how football works out sometimes…

“We still have two games left to win, that’s the aim, and ultimately build for the next campaign. We have to look at it that way and hopefully get some positive results.”