Republic of Ireland face Northern Ireland on Thursday, live on Sky Sports
Wednesday 14 November 2018 13:19, UK
Northern Ireland manager Michael O'Neill says he will treat Thursday's friendly against the Republic of Ireland like a competitive game.
Northern Ireland make the short trip to Dublin to face Martin O'Neill's side on Thursday, live on Sky Sports, before hosting Austria in a UEFA Nations League clash on Sunday.
O'Neill says Northern Ireland will treat both games on equal standing as he continues to condition his side for future international double headers.
"I would not categorise one game being more important than the other. For me, this is a double header, and we will play it like a double header," he said in his pre-match press conference.
"That's the experience the players need to get, playing and then recovering, particularly when you are bringing new players into the squad.
"You can't deal with the second game until you've played the first, the turn around time is very little. So to benefit the younger players and those new to international football we will treat both games as if they were qualifiers, albeit we can make six substitutions on Thursday and give game time to a few. That will not be to the detriment to the performance.
"We have the European campaign coming up with five double headers with no friendlies in there, that's what we have to prepare for."
O'Neill's side are on the brink of relegation in the Nations League having only managed to score once in the competition, but the number of chances they are creating has given O'Neill confidence they will soon start hitting the back of the net.
"I'd be more concerned if we weren't creating chances, to be honest," O'Neill said. "We hit the post three times in Bosnia and we hit the post in Austria at 1-0 down as well."
"I'm not a great one for talking about luck or rub of the green, but in this campaign we've created loads of chances.
"What we need to do is find someone to stick the ball in the net. Northern Ireland have had longer periods without a goal before, we're certainly not at that stage. It's something that can rectify itself and hopefully it does in this next two games."
O'Neill has welcomed Kyle Lafferty back into his squad for this week's games following his late withdrawal in the last international break as he continues his search for a reliable goalscorer.
