'I've not looked back' - NI's Charles' rise from U19s to last-gasp saves

BBC News

13-06-2025

A year ago, Pierce Charles was lining up for Northern Ireland at the Under-19 Euros. Now, 12 months on, he's making last-minute saves to secure a win for Michael O'Neill's senior team. It's a rise that few would have predicted so soon, and the 19-year-old has made a big impression since making his senior debut against Belarus in October."In football, you never know what's around the corner," Charles said "I just take every step as it comes, so I wasn't really thinking ahead to playing for the senior team last summer."I was hoping one time in the future, obviously that was my target, but at that time it was just focused on the U19s."I got the opportunity back in October, thanks to the gaffer, and I feel like I've not looked back since."
From his first time at Windsor Park, Charles impressed with his ability on the ball with confidence and some eye-catching raking passes forward.Such is his inexperience in senior football of any kind, Charles has won as many international caps as he has made league appearances for Sheffield Wednesday. With that in mind, it perhaps isn't a surprise he struggled to impose his area at times when up against high calibre attackers in Europe. However, in Tuesday's 1-0 win over Iceland, when Northern Ireland were put under pressure after being reduced to 10 men with just over an hour to go, he more than held his own.His most impressive moment came inside the final 60 seconds, when he got a good hand on Isak Bergmann Johannesson's goalbound header before Ruairi McConville hooked the ball away from danger."I think it showed a different side to him," O'Neill said after the game. "In the brief time we've had with Pierce, he's played more international games than club games. That's the challenge, and he needs games. "Everyone would look at Pierce and know how good he is with his feet, but how he commanded his box was excellent."It was a good night for Pierce and he got a clean sheet, which is always nice."
'It shows determination and desire'
There has been a lot of excitement surrounding O'Neill's young Northern Ireland side, and Tuesday's performance showcased a different side with the grit shown to get over the line. It was all the more impressive considering their previous two friendlies had resulted in defeats by Sweden and Denmark, but the defensive display in Belfast was much improved. "With the 10 men it showed that we can hold on to a result, and obviously the past few games maybe or so we've gone up leading and then we've thrown it away," said Charles, who is the younger brother of midfielder Shea."I was hoping we could do it, and obviously we did it, so it's good momentum going into the next. "It shows the real determination, desire, character, everything that any manager wants to see."
With World Cup qualifying starting in September, fans are starting to dream about what could be possible over the next 12 months. O'Neill's side start their campaign with tricky away matches in Luxembourg and Germany, and also face Slovakia in Group A.However, within the group the message is clear - to take it "one step at a time"."I think we're all only young. I think we take it one step at a time, and obviously going into September, we'll do the most we can," Charles said."I think we've got to have patience with ourselves as well, because we've got a long way to go to what we hope to achieve, especially in the future."However, Charles admitted the manner in which Northern Ireland closed out their final friendly with Iceland meant they had some strong momentum heading into September."It just fills us with more confidence. It'll be the last memory that we have until September," he added."So, I think everyone will be more positive now, going into September, rather than if we had lost tonight, for example."I can't wait until then and, of course the Germany game. They're the games that you want to play since you were a kid. I just can't wait."