CAPTAIN Conor Bradley laughed a little when he said in Northern Ireland’s pre-match press conference that goalkeeper Pierce Charles could play in central midfield – but he wasn’t joking.
The 19-year-old, making his Windsor Park senior bow against Bulgaria, showed the extra dimension he can bring with some superb passing in the stunning 5-0 victory.
Now at Sheffield Wednesday, he learned that element as part of the youth set-up under Pep Guardiola at Manchester City, commenting: “It’s a big part of my game and I think it helps the team out. You work on that as much as you work on saves especially in the modern game.”
Two moments stood out. For the first, he bided his time before picking out his older brother Shea in the centre circle in the lead-up to the second goal from Isaac Price en route to his hat-trick.
Even better came in the second half, when his superb long pass over the top released Liverpool’s Bradley, whose dink over the goalkeeper was kept out by a defender but finished by Dion Charles, only for an offside flag to go up against the skipper.
Pierce was able to sense the opening and exploit it, explaining: “I took a touch and saw the defender jumping [forward] so I knew the space was in behind and I played it in there and we scored from it. It was annoying it was offside.”
Having also kept a clean sheet in the goalless draw against Belarus last Saturday night, the teenager has settled brilliantly onto the senior international scene – although he admitted the full house at Windsor Park was very different:
“When I was walking out the noise caught me by surprise. It was like ‘Wow!’ It was such an amazing atmosphere and the fans brought so much passion to the game.”
He was delighted to experience that on the same pitch as his brother – and clubmate: “We had a lot of family here watching. My mum was here, we also had aunties, uncles, cousins and family friends. They are all happy for us.
“It’s amazing that we are at the same club now and to play with each other at international level is a dream for us.”
With that ambition realised, his next aim is to get more games, for club and country: “Hopefully I can stay in the senior squad. When I was told I was going to play, my target was to keep my position in the team. I will leave it up to the manager. I’m going to go back to my club and keep working hard and hopefully get a few games there.”
