Jamie Donley: Stephen Craigan excited by youngster’s imminent Northern Ireland switch

Craigan doesn’t believe Donley will have needed a lot of persuading to switch allegiance to a Northern Ireland side that clinched Nations League promotion in the autumn.

“When the team are winning games and getting a bit of positive publicity and there’s momentum building, you probably don’t have to do a lot of convincing.

“Anyone you speak to, they talk about the vibrancy around the group and the togetherness. And you when you get so many young players together, there’s an excitement and you want to grow together.”

And with Ronan Hale also set for his first involvement with Northern Ireland’s senior squad after switching allegiance from the Republic of Ireland, Craigan believes there is a feel-good factor around O’Neill’s squad at the moment.

“When you watch them training and you watch them playing and you watch them off the pitch, you sense that there is something building, something brewing.

“If you’re a young player, you think ‘I wouldn’t mind being part of that group’ and I think that’s why the likes of Ronan Hale and Jamie Donley have come in.”

While the games over the next week are friendlies, Craigan believes O’Neill and his players can learn a “huge” amount from them.

“We’ve been in Nations League C. We’ve played, we’ve won our group but you want to test yourself against better sides. That’s how you learn as a player and as a group and that’s how Michael will learn as a manager. He will take an awful lot from these two games.”