We will be giving the players a belief in themselves, says NI U19 manager Gareth McAuley ahead of Italy test
Northern Ireland U19 manager Gareth McAuley has urged his side to have more belief in themselves as their European Championship campaign continues against Italy at Inver Park on Thursday evening.
Northern Ireland’s first game at the tournament, in Group A, saw them draw 0-0 with Ukraine at Inver Park on Monday night.
Meanwhile, defending champions Italy got their campaign off to a winning start as they came from behind to beat Norway at Seaview.
The scoreless draw against the Ukrainians means Northern Ireland are currently four matches unbeaten and McAuley says his players should draw confidence from a narrow 3-2 loss to Italy when they met in his first game in charge back in September.
"We're a little bit disappointed in ourselves," he told the IFA's social media platforms after Monday night's draw against Ukraine.
"The boys certainly are...they feel they could have been better tonight but the positive side of it is that it's 0-0, we've a point on the board ahead of two difficult games coming up and we will look forward to them.
"It is now four games unbeaten so we have to draw positives from it.
"We faced Italy in September and we lost narrowly out there and we gave a really good account of ourselves.
"We will be driving that home to the boys and giving them a belief in themselves.
"I think at times on Monday night there was a little bit of belief lacking in what they were doing.
"We pride ourselves on being a possession-based team and it became quite transitional in the game and turnover of possession a lot.
"We will work on that, get better as it is a work in progress."
St Mirren ace Gallagher Lennon started in Monday’s draw against Ukraine and has once again called on home support to cheer Northern Ireland on.
He stated: "We know we can play better than that, we know we're a better side than that and if we want to take positives, then we kept a clean sheet and that's us unbeaten in the last four games now.
"I think all the boys really appreciate the support that we get. We're going to really need that over the next two games because it doesn't go unnoticed and the boys take real spirit from the fans.”