John O’Shea hails Evan Ferguson’s ‘courage’ despite penalty miss in Belgium draw

Ferguson went into Saturday's friendly against the Belgians off the back of a worrying 20-game run without scoring a goal for his club, and when Ireland were awarded a penalty for handball midway through the first half, Ferguson assumed spot-kick duties despite the pressing claims from dead-ball specialist Robbie Brady as he appeared to be keen to take it.

But Nottingham Forest keeper Matz Sels saved as Ferguson appeared to slip on his run up to the ball, and while the youngster’s goal drought goes on, O'Shea had no issue with the decision by the Meath native to take the kick.

"He will be ready to go as soon as we need him to. He will have another spell five or six years down the line with a couple of months without a goal, it happens to top strikers. As soon as he gets on the goal trail, he will back on a run," O'Shea said.

"Evan would have been on the penalties, that would have been Robbie protecting the taker type of scenario," O'Shea added, explaining the call to let Ferguson take the penalty.

"It was just unfortunate Ev had a little slip just before he knocked it so it would have put him off. A youngster stepping up like that, it shows the courage he has and he didn't let it affect him, he knocked into the centre backs as soon as he could again and got his confidence going.

"It's one of those things, he was unlucky with one [chance] where he was in a great position in the second half as well. How he started, that's what we talked about at half time, about the reset, going at Belgium as quickly as we could, worked on a nice little kick off, and it was a really great ball from Robbie, just a touch too high and maybe Evan could have timed it a bit better but it was a touch too high, he was lucky but it was a well-worked move."

O'Shea's opposite number Domenico Tedesco labelled the 0-0 draw as "boring" but O'Shea wasn't on board with that as he wanted credit for his team's ability to counter the Belgian threat.

"We had the best chances, we were aware beforehand that they would go with that 4-3-3 shape. With the talented squad that they have they made changes and the players they had coming on are talented youngsters playing at top clubs around Europe, so it was going to be a challenge," O'Shea said.

"But when you saw the chances we created early on, big chances, it was exactly what we had worked on, to be compact, aggressive, it was a shame we didn't get the rewards in that sense from that first half, especially that was the big thing for me.

"It's a frustrating one. You appreciate Belgium had a decent bit of possession but we felt beforehand we wouldn't mind that as we knew the damage we could create against them on the break. If we take those chances when they arrive in the game, it would open up Belgium in the game and we could exploit it even more. A frustrating one in that sense: you're playing Belgium in Dublin, you'd take a clean sheet but a little bit disappointed in the end too."

O’Shea was also pleased to see an Irish midfield that had more bite that was often evident in the poor Euro 2024 qualifying campaign as Josh Cullen and Will Smallbone showed signs of life,

"I know Josh very well, and I know Will very well in terms of when he came into the 21s, I worked with him at Stoke as well," O’Shea said.

“And a few times he has done it for Southampton too. That six position or lower pivots in midfield, that is the connection that we just felt was going to be key in terms of protecting the team but also a huge chance for us to exploit on the counterattack with their passing ability to connect the teams either short passing combining themselves, little angles to find the pockets of Sammie [Szmodics] and Chieo [Ogbene], that was a key thing for me, that is what we were looking for. And I thought the two of them, because we knew physicality in terms of Belgium have some big boys in there too, that we knew we would have to up against them battle away, nick the ball away press when we could and the two of them were really aggressive on that front too.

“That was the domination I want from our centre backs, to be pressing into midfield, pressing players high up the pitch, being able to swing round into a four with the wing-backs pushed high like a winger. The centre backs can be aggressive like that because they have the attributes and the ability to be aggressive stepping into midfield if it might be where the player has gone, and I think that is a key asset for the team going forward. The quality and aggression and pace and power of our centre backs is crucial for us.”