Michael O’Neill: It’s great to have my players back from injury

Stoke City

’s goalless draw against

was their third back-to-back away draws but they are still able to stay in the play-off zone on goal difference. The team wasted a number of chances to win the game but the more important aspect of the game was the return of

Joe Allen

who was suffering from an Achilles injury. In a post-match interview,

Michael O’Neill

has spoken about his team’s situation and the returning of injured players.

“We haven’t been able to rotate the team as much as we would like because of the players that have been out, and we probably have the opportunity now which will keep us a little bit fresher.

“It was great to see Joe back. We’ve had to hold him back a bit but it’s a real positive for the group.

“We are getting players back now – John Obi Mikel and Sam Clucas, for example, are coming back into contention and I believe we will be stronger in the second half of the season.

“We’ve got a lot to play for and these players will help us. There’s no doubt we need more goals to come from the team, we lost a big threat with Tyrese Campbell coming out injured.”

Asked about his team’s performance against Coventry, O’Neill responded:

“I thought we were dominant in the second half in particular and had enough chances to win the game but unfortunately we couldn’t take them.

“The most important thing is that we creating chances but, yes, it would be nice to see some of those chances go in. There were one or two that we should have done better with.

“When you look at the teams occupying the automatic promotion places, we still have a way to go to compete with them but we are going in the right direction.”

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