‘They aren’t here to make up the numbers’: Northern Ireland’s youngest ever player backs next generation to shine

A lot has changed in the 13 years since Caragh Hamilton, then Caragh Milligan, was handed her debut by Alfie Wylie at the tender age of just 15 years and 121 days. Northern Ireland are now seen as serious contenders in Europe having qualified for a major tournament and gone close to another, the team has more full-time professionals than ever before and a full-time manager.

Due to a change in Fifa's rules nobody will ever take Hamilton's record away from her, but the overall Northern Ireland squad has rarely been younger than it is now and the Nottingham Forest star is urging uncapped duo Abi Sweetlove and Aimee Kerr to seize their opportunity.

Tanya Oxtoby selected the pair for the Nations League double header against Romania and the example of Kascie Weir, who was promoted from the under-19 last month and swiftly handed her debut shows that the manager isn't just filling out her squad for the sake of it. The future is now for a batch of teenagers, which also includes Linfield Women striker Keri Halliday and Hamilton is in no doubt the newcomers can make an impact.

“It’s quite clear that Tanya has an awful a lot of faith in them," said Hamilton.

"They'll probably have looked at Kascie in the last camp and saw not only has she come on, but she started the second game and they can see there's a real opportunity for them.

“They're not just there to make up numbers. I think there is a real belief that they can play a part.

“I don't think there'll be worried in any way – and they shouldn't be. That's down to us as a senior leadership group to reiterate that they are in merit, they are in because they’re good enough and they’re not just in because we've got no-one else or to make up numbers, not at all."

Hamilton will win her 50th cap if she appears in both games, at the Arcul de Triumf Stadium in Budapest on Friday before the return game at Windsor Park next Tuesday.

She has seen a major evolution during her career as scrutiny on performance now goes deeper than ever before and she is happy that players now must take on a higher degree of responsibility for their performances.

“There is more structure now, a clearer identity for the team and also a level of detail to the individual," she said.

“Tanya is very much heavily focused on the individual detail for each player and then us as a collective too.

“We have access to every training session, so the onus is on us to watch those sessions back to review them - things that maybe you did well and then not so well.

“It’s down each of us to review that and to bring it to the coaching staff if there are questions.”

After an anguish of several injuries, including one that denied her a place at the Women's Euro 2022 Finals, Hamilton is enjoying life at Nottingham Forest, helped by having international team mates Nat Johnson, Casey Howe and the recently arrived Megan Bell.

“The more that come I think the more people see that Northern Irish humour and banter," said Hamilton.

“I definitely noticed people making more fun of our accents the more of us that there are here.

“We haven't been in the same team for our small-sided games yet, I don’t know if that intentional from the coaches to keep us apart, but I would like to see how we would fare because I think we have a fairly balanced team there, we just need to draft in a goalkeeper.

“I think what is good for us is that Carly (Davies, Forest manager) and Tanya share similar philosophies so it's easier for us now switching environments. That transition is easier because of the way that they see the game and want to play it. 
That is what makes the transition easier, but of course he more you play with players and you start to understand them the easier it is."

The emphasis, as it always is with every player and manager, on one game at a time. There is, however, a glance at the bigger picture for this Northern Ireland team. Although they had to scramble back from 2-1 down to grab a late win against Bosnia & Herzegovina last time out the squad is also carrying a degree of frustration from the 2-0 defeat in Poland at the start of the campaign.

Winning the two games against Romania will be a crucial factor ahead of facing the Poles again at the end of May, the hope being that Northern Ireland can set up a shot at promotion to League A.

“We do feel that it was a missed opportunity in the first game," said Hamilton.

"It was disappointing in how we executed or didn't execute the game plan so we want to right those wrongs and we managed to do that last year against Portugal where we had a poor away performance, but at home we put a really strong performance in and I think Poland are maybe not just as strong an opposition across the pitch as Portugal and I think if we can continue to improve over the next two games, gain a bit of confidence than we'll really fancy ourselves going into that Poland game.”