• Home
  • /
  • Football
  • /
  • Michael O'Neill Condemns Booing Of God Save The Queen

Michael O'Neill Condemns Booing Of God Save The Queen

15 November 2018; Northern Ireland manager Michael O'Neill reacts during the International Friendly match between Republic of Ireland and Northern Ireland at the Aviva Stadium in Dublin. Photo by Stephen McCarthy/Sportsfile
Gavin Cooney
By Gavin Cooney
Share this article

Northern Ireland manager Michael O'Neill has condemned the booing of God Save The Queen ahead of tonight's 0-0 international friendly draw in Dublin. Ahead of kick-off, the anthem was met with loud, sustained boos, and O'Neill said after the game that it isn't something he supports.

At the end of the day, I don't get involved in this kind of thing. At the end of the day, when people come to a football ground, and decide to boo an anthem, that's their decision.

I don't particularly agree with it, I would never condone anyone booing anyone's anthem, but that's not something I'm in control of. I don't want to dwell on that too much, I concentrate on football.

The game was played in a great spirit, there was great respect between both sets of players, it was very competitive and when tackles went in, you could see players picking eachother up. You could see there was a great respect between both players, and that's the most important thing.

Recommended

Elsewhere, O'Neill admitted that his side should have won, but reserved some praise for man of the match Darren Randolph.

I think we should have won that game. In terms of possession of the ball and chances created, we should have won the game. We have to commend Darren Randolph, I thought he had a great night and made important saves at key moments in the game. We are pleased with the performance but there is a pattern there like in our games in the Nations League in that we dominated the game without taking the chances we created.

He then expanded on his opinion of Ireland, and drew similarities between the job he is doing.

Advertisement

It's not for me to speak about the opposition. We knew what the Republic of Ireland would be [like]. Martin is in a similar situation to me, he's trying to integrate new players into his team. He had two relatively inexperienced centre-backs at this level coming in tonight, and we had relative inexperience at full-back and in wide areas.

You have to give players a chance to get to this level, and at the end of the day the Republic weren't beaten, so they can take that out of the game.

See Also: God Save The Queen Booed In Build Up To Northern Ireland Game

Join The Monday Club Have a tip or something brilliant you wanted to share on? We're looking for loyal Balls readers free-to-join members club where top tipsters can win prizes and Balls merchandise

Processing your request...

You are now subscribed!

Share this article

Copyright © 2024. All rights reserved. Developed by Square1 and powered by PublisherPlus.com

Advertisement