Worthington reflects on Ireland defeat

For a man who had just seen his side lose 5-0 Northern Ireland manager, Nigel Worthington, was a study in calm reflection as he met the press after the Nations Cup game against the Republic on Tuesday night.

By half time his players were 3-0 down to a Republic of Ireland side that would go on to add another two before full time and hit the woodwork on another couple of occasions. His analysis of what went wrong for his young side was simple and concise.

“I thought we had a very good start to the first half. We passed the ball, there were two or three very good balls went across the Republic’s goal. Thereafter, the first goal is palmed out by the ‘keeper, one nil. The second goal is a short back pass, two nil. The third goal is an own goal. The fourth goal, we delay on the ball and it gets pinched and then you’ve got a penalty. So, for me, individual errors have cost us four out of the five goals.”

There wasn’t much to say to such forensic comments but Worthington was being neither cruel nor unfair. The simple facts were unforgiving but he had plenty of encouraging things to say about his young players.

“It knocks the confidence a bit but I’ve got to give the lads credit, they kept going in the second half and when we lost a man it made it even more difficult. There were a lot of youngsters in there, a great learning curve for them, we’ll get them picked up again and get them ready for Friday night. And young Josh Carson I thought was excellent, a very mature performance by a seventeen year old.”

Similarly, when discussing the sending off of Adam Thompson for the foul that conceded the Republic’s second half penalty, Worthington was phlegmatic, stressing the value of the experience rather than looking to apportion blame.

“Craig had a decision to make, I’ve got no major issue. The young lad’s gone for an honest challenge, whether it is or it isn’t, Craig has given the decision and we’ll live with that. And again, for young Adam Thompson, it’s a learning curve. A great experience, a hard experience, for all of them, but you deal with it and in this game there’s no sympathy. I’ve just said that to them, if they’re looking for sympathy and pats on the back, it doesn’t come. It’s like young Hodson when he gave the short back pass, I said to him at half time that good players forget things like that and move forward, and I thought he was excellent in the second half.”

Naturally, despite all the positivity that can be taken from hard lessons being learned, Worthington admitted that such a heavy defeat was an unpleasant experience.

“It’s disappointing, nobody likes to lose any game but to lose 5-0 is hard to take. But, I’m very realistic and I look at the overall picture and you’ve got to deal with it in a professional manner. It’s a game of football, it happens, mistakes happen in the game, we’ve made four and they’ve got four goals from them. That’s something that will stay in the player’s minds and they’ll learn from it. Youngsters get over the situation very, very quickly and we’ve got another important game on Friday and we’ll be ready for that.”