New keeper coach Steve Harper sure Northern Ireland are in safe hands

Michael McGovern, Conor Hazard and Bailey Peacock-Farrell were all named in the squad by O’Neill and former Newcastle keeper Harper says he has been pleased with what he has seen since taking over the goalkeeping coach role from Maik Taylor.

“Very much so, I’ve been impressed with them,” he said. “We’ve had two really long days given the intensity in a short period of time.

“We got a good work day in yesterday and then went up early this morning, started early and got a really good session in today as well. I had a good look at them.

“Michael had an incredible time with his country in the Euros and there are two outstanding young goalkeepers.

“With Trevor Carson, it’s good to see him recovering from his illness as well. It will be great to have Trevor back as well, we’re looking forward to it.”

And young keepers Hazard and Peacock-Farrell have impressed the new coach in his short time in the role.

“Hazard’s only very young isn’t he,” he said. “I saw him last week, he’s very ambitious, very driven, very hungry you want your young goalkeepers on a gradual climb.

“You’re going to have little troughs and peaks and you want to build along the way.

“You have to careful of that because you can have big drop offs as well, but what Conor does have the advantage of is playing regular football.

“He’s out there learning. I did that myself as a youngster. It’s not just playing but you need that support around you.

“I’ve seen Stevie Woods and his work at Celtic, he’s very very good and I’m obviously now an extra resource as well to help him and support him with any sort of guidance that needs.

“ I’ve done it for 23 years. I keep saying to them I’ve got pretty much every tee-shirt there is.

“Bailey’s been good. Obviously he’s disappointed to be left out. On the bus earlier I was chatting to him about the scenario I had with Jordan Pickford at Sunderland when I went there.

“He wasn’t in the team but he was working incredibly hard in the gym, doing the extra work so when his opportunity came he was ready.

“When you do get left out if you take it the wrong way, you don’t train well, don’t do the extra work, when your opportunity does come then you aren’t ready.

“Jordan was working very hard and when he got his opportunity he was ready. When you’re in the team it’s pretty much play, recover, play, recover.

“It’s hard to do that other incremental work in between so he’s got a really good attitude from speaking to him a few times.

“So hopefully, like Conor, he’s another one destined for big things in the future,” said Harper.