Northern Ireland v Austria

Words Mark McIntosh The Sun

STICKING WITH IT WAS GOOD ADVICE

Shane Ferguson has thanked Michael O’Neill for helping him reignite his career - both at club and international level.

He admitted he thought long and hard about his options. “I’ve had a lot of great moments at Millwall, like getting promoted, and sometimes it’s hard to walk away,” he revealed. “I said to myself ‘I want to give it another six months to January and see how it goes from there’. I didn’t want to leave with any regrets. Thankfully now I’m playing and it’s worked out well. “It was a tough time not playing at the start of the season and the last couple of months of last season as well because the team were doing so well. I came back from an injury as well so I was just trying to get back up to speed again in pre- season.” He is relieved he is now playing regular football again, and admits it has boosted his confidence.

The Millwall ace fell out of favour at The Den in the second half of last season and contemplated leaving in search of first team football. As a consequence the opportunities in the green shirt were limited but words of encouragement from the Northern Ireland boss at a difficult time drove the ex-Newcastle United man on to fight for his place. “Michael is always great like that. He’s always phoning me to see how I am and I’d phone him too to ask for advice,” said Ferguson. “He was always saying ‘stick with it and see how the start of the season goes’. He would also help me further down the line if I needed help. “I did consider leaving Millwall. I had conversations with the manager in the summer and it was left up to me to choose what I wanted to do at that stage.”

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