Isaac Price admitted the moment of Northern Ireland’s Nations League promotion was “bittersweet” after they lost a 2-0 lead to draw their final group game 2-2 in Luxembourg, but he believes Monday’s experience will only help going forward.
Price, 21, scored his sixth Northern Ireland goal to give Michael O’Neill’s side the lead 19 minutes in and they appeared to be cruising when Conor Bradley added a second, early in the second half.
But they squandered chances to add to that lead and were made to pay as two goals in three minutes from Seid Korac and Gerson Rodrigues brought Luxembourg level with 15 minutes to go.
It was job done in terms of the group as Northern Ireland finished two points clear of Bulgaria in League C Group 3, but there was no party atmosphere given the result.
“It’s a little bit bittersweet,” Price said. “We’ve come here to top the group and we’ve done that so everyone is really happy.
“We’ve had a good Nations League, we’ve built as a group so I think overall the feeling is positive but we’ve got to look back and stop these sorts of (results) happening…
“We’ve not conceded many goals in this Nations League and this is sort of learning curve, of when we do go 2-0 up, how to manage a game and not have that thing of quick succession goals. But we’ve got a young team and I think we’ll all learn from that.”
I think we’ve had a top year really. We’ve had a lot of different faces
Price, who scored a hat-trick in last month’s 5-0 rout of Bulgaria, put Northern Ireland ahead with an instinctive finish when played in by Shea Charles.
“There was no real thinking about it,” the Standard Liege forward said. “Just try and hit the bottom corner and that’s what happened so, yeah, buzzing.”
Price and Northern Ireland will now look forward to next month’s World Cup qualifying draw – which comes on December 13 – in confident mood after taking big strides forward since an otherwise-disappointing Euro 2024 qualifying campaign ended with a 2-0 win over Denmark 12 months ago.
“I think we’ve had a top year really,” Price said. “We’ve had a lot of different faces, a lot of different squads and adapting but I think we’ve got so many good young players.
“We’ve got senior players that are leading the way for us and showing us what they’ve been through in the past and it always helps when you’ve had players that have been to the Euros before and they’ve experienced it so we can only learn from that and I think we have.”
Price came off in second-half stoppage-time in Luxembourg to make way for Justin Devenny to make his debut.
The 21-year-old made his first Premier League appearance for Crystal Palace a little over a week ago against Fulham, swiftly followed by a late call-up into O’Neill’s team, and it has been a whirlwind few days for the Scottish-born midfielder.
“I’m very proud, you can’t beat it,” Devenny told the PA news agency. “This week’s been very, very good. There are some great players in the squad. I just need to learn every day, learn off the best and take that experience away.”
Given how quickly things have been happening for Devenny in the past two weeks, he admitted it had been a struggle to take it all in.
“I try to as much as I can,” he said. “I feel like this is something I’ll look back on for the rest of my life. After the game for Palace, I didn’t really know how to react, how to take it in, but I’ve just got to be proud of these moments.”