Ian Baraclough believes Northern Ireland in better position after positive camp

The campaign ended with a 1-0 friendly defeat to Ukraine and Baraclough said there was plenty to draw on ahead of fixtures against Lithuania and Switzerland in September.

Sam McClelland made his debut – following on from Conor Bradley in Sunday’s win against Malta – while others were deployed in different roles.

“We have to be patient, we can’t just expect these young players to come in and hit the ground running suddenly at a level where it’s taken years for Jonny (Evans), Craig (Cathcart) and Stuart Dallas to get to – they’re at the top of their game at this level for us,” Baraclough said. “You do have to have a good bit of patience, but we’ve seen one or two in different positions, we’re asking players to do something they’re probably not used to but that’s something we need to do.

“If you’re asking someone to go and fill in for 15-20 minutes at the end of a game you’ve got to know whether or not they can do it and a lot of players have done themselves the world of good on this trip.”

He added: “We knew the game was going to be a tough one...we had to pull together for long periods of the first half, although we ended up having probably the best chance and their goalkeeper pulled off the best save.”

A change of shape at the break in Ukraine helped Northern Ireland who also seemed to cope better with the usual rush of substitutions in the second half of the friendly.

“We changed it to a 3-4-3 to try to get more of a foothold in midfield and I thought the lads dealt with that fantastically,” Baraclough added. “If you take into consideration Ukraine have only lost once in their last 15 games at home and that was to Germany...they’ve beaten Spain here, drawn with France and taken some decent scalps. They’re getting ready for the Euros and had something to really fight for.

“But we were by no means embarrassed, we created little half chances of our own and maybe could have hit the target on a couple more occasions, been a bit more incisive and believed in ourselves a bit more.

“But I can’t fault the players for effort. They’ve come off shattered after a long double season, they’ve gone to the well once more and gained a lot of respect from me and the staff for the effort they’ve put in.”

--

A message from the Editor:

Thank you for reading this story on our website. While I have your attention, I also have an important request to make of you.

In order for us to continue to provide high quality and trusted local news on this free-to-read site, I am asking you to also please purchase a copy of our newspaper whenever you are able to do so.

Our journalists are highly trained and our content is independently regulated by IPSO to some of the most rigorous standards in the world.

But being your eyes and ears comes at a price. So we need your support more than ever to buy our newspapers during this crisis.

With the coronavirus lockdown having a major impact on many of our local valued advertisers - and consequently the advertising that we receive - we are more reliant than ever on you helping us to provide you with news and information by buying a copy of our newspaper when you can safely.

You can also enjoy unlimited access to the best news from across Northern Ireland and the UK by subscribing to newsletter.co.uk

With a digital subscription, you can read more than five articles, see fewer ads, enjoy faster load times, and get access to exclusive newsletters and content. Visit https://www.newsletter.co.uk/subscriptions now to sign up.

Thank you