Shea Charles on Northern Ireland’s “Lots of Captains” After Historic Debut

Shea Charles made his debut as Northern Ireland’s captain, leading the team onto the field against Belarus. Following their 2-0 victory over Belarus in a Nations League match at Windsor Park on Friday night, Charles informed BBC Sport NI that Northern Ireland possessed “lots of captains on that pitch.” Despite controlling the first half without scoring, the team secured a comfortable 2-0 win thanks to a header from Dan Ballard and a penalty converted by Dion Charles. At the age of 21, Charles, currently on loan to Sheffield Wednesday from Southampton, established a new record as Northern Ireland’s youngest captain when he guided his team-mates onto the pitch in Belfast. Northern Ireland’s manager, Michael O’Neill, has been experimenting with various captains throughout the autumn Nations League series, with Trai Hume and Conor Bradley having previously taken on the responsibility in earlier international fixtures. Charles commented, “Since all the young lads have come into the team we’ve had to take on some responsibility and I think that showed.” He further described the experience, stating, “Walking the team out to that crowd and atmosphere, it was a bit surreal really. “And to have my brother behind me [goalkeeper Pierce Charles], it was special. All the boys, we’ve known each other for a while now and the relationship within the group is just building and building.” Charles disclosed that the Northern Ireland dressing room remained calm at half-time, even though O’Neill’s team had failed to score in the first half despite their dominant performance. In their prior encounter in Hungary in October, Northern Ireland had been unable to breach the Belarusian defense, resulting in a 0-0 draw. During this match, Ballard scored from a corner kick five minutes into the second half. Subsequently, in the 63rd minute, Dion Charles successfully converted a penalty after Kirill Pechenin was deemed to have committed a handball inside the box. He explained, “When we came in we said we couldn’t really let it get into that phase of the game where it slows down, then we scored quite early in the second half and we managed a second goal, so it was good.” Charles added, “I wasn’t really concerned, we knew we could go out and score goals, we learned from the last time. Michael just came in and told us that we had to exploit certain areas to try and score so it ended up coming from a set-piece, something that we had worked on.” He concluded, “When you score it’s important not to sit back and I thought we did that. When we scored the second goal we knew we could take a step back and try and control it. We managed to do that well.” This win marked Northern Ireland’s third consecutive home victory in the Nations League, specifically in Group C3. The team is scheduled to conclude their campaign with an away fixture against Luxembourg on Monday. Securing a draw in that upcoming match would be sufficient for Northern Ireland to finish at the top of their group and achieve promotion. Charles further stated, “Everyone wants to go there and get our first away win of the campaign and I think we’re well capable of doing it.”