Michael O'Neill takes plenty of positives from Scotland defeat

Northern Ireland boss Michael O'Neill has insisted that his side can take plenty of positives away from their narrow friendly defeat against Scotland.

The Green and White Army came unstuck in the final five minutes against their home nation rivals with Christophe Berra's header proving the difference at Hampden Park.

It means that Northern Ireland have now gone 22 games without winning a friendly match, although with their Euro 2016 qualification campaign very much on track, O'Neill was happy with what he saw in Glasgow.

"We can take an awful lot [from the performance]. We ended up with three [players] under 20 on the pitch, so it is great for those lads to get minutes in that type of game," he is quoted as saying by FourFourTwo.

"I was really pleased with Stuart Dallas, I thought he did very well. It was good to see Jonny [Evans] back, I thought he was excellent throughout the 80 minutes he was on.

"We allowed Scotland to press us at times, and maybe didn't create as much as what we would have liked, but there were more positives from the performance than negatives."

O'Neill's charges return to action this weekend when they take on Finland in a crucial qualification clash.