Wales 1-1 Northern Ireland: Terry Devlin praises NI efforts in ‘hard-fought’ game

Northern Ireland defender Terry Devlin insists ”there’s a lot of things we can improve on” after their hard-fought 1-1 friendly draw with Wales on Tuesday night.

Jamie Donley opened the scoring for Northern Ireland before Wales drew level just after half-time through Sorba Thomas.

After making his debut last March against Switzerland, Devlin is delighted with the experience he has gained over the last few days under Michael O’Neill, after starting against Italy and in Tuesday’s draw in Cardiff.

”A lot of people thought it was going to be a pointless or dead rubber game, but for what it was, it was a really intense and hard-fought game between the two sides and it was a good experience for a lot of us players,” Devlin told BBC Sport NI.

”Wales are a top nation, they’ve a lot of really good top players. They’ve loads of players in the Premier League and top Championship level players.

”For us to be level or match them for the 45 or 90 [minutes], it’s a really good thing for us to take. We can still be better, there’s a lot of things we can improve on, we’re a young squad and I’m sure we’ll definitely do that.”

Donley’s goal against Wales was his second for his country after he netted his first international goal back in November against Luxembourg and Devlin was pleased for his teammate.

”Jamie [Donley] is a top lad, he works really hard and he’s a top player and it’s massive for him to get that [goal],” Devlin added.

”That’s two goals in two camps now, that jersey’s his at the minute and he just needs to keep hold of it and keep scoring goals for us.”