Hosts with the most

By Andrew Haslam

Northern Ireland coach Mal Donaghy is confident his players are as ready as they can be as they prepare to welcome the seven other qualifiers for the finals of the 2004/05 UEFA European Under-19 Championship.

Boyce praise
The tournament is the first to be hosted by Northern Ireland, and Donaghy believes one man in particular deserves much credit. "I'd like to express my thanks to [UEFA Youth and Amateur Football committee chairman and Irish Football Association president] Jim Boyce, who's done so much to make this happen," he said. "He's an important figure for Northern Irish football and our hosting this tournament is down to the work he's done over the last few years. To be able to host a tournament of this magnitude is a fantastic achievement for us, and a lot of the credit has to go to Jim."

First finals
These finals also mark the first time Northern Ireland have competed in the event or its predecessor, the European U18 Championship, and Donaghy - who won 91 caps for his country, appearing at the 1982 and 1986 FIFA World Cups - is immensely proud to be involved. "It's a great honour for me to coach this team," he told uefa.com. "We don't have a particularly good record in youth football, but we qualified for the [UEFA] European U17 Championship a year ago – Kenny Shiels did a great job with that side – and the signs are good. For a country of our size, youth football is an integral point, it's a stepping stone from schoolboy to senior football, so we hopefully have a positive future."

Self-awareness
The hosts face Greece, Serbia and Montenegro and Germany in Group A, but the coach is not yet looking beyond their first game, continuing: "Greek football is on the up, obviously the senior side won [UEFA] EURO 2004™ so it's in a good state and I expect that euphoria has filtered down to the youth teams. But I've never been one to concentrate on the opposition. I prefer to prepare my players and focus fully on ourselves to make sure we're ready by the time the finals come around."

Lengthy preparations
Northern Ireland qualified as hosts, and Donaghy does not see their lack of competitive football as a disadvantage, insisting his side's preparations have been extensive. "It has been a very long build-up for us – we started our preparations with an U18 game against Switzerland back in October 2003 - so we're ready for these finals," the 47-year-old said. "We've had two very prestigious friendlies last year, in France and Italy. We lost narrowly to France and drew 1-1 against the Italians, so that's given us a good idea of where we stand in relation to them. Those games instilled a lot of confidence in the players as they put up good performances. We also had a three-day get-together at the end of June."

Call for support
At previous events, home support has been a valuable asset to the tournament hosts, and Donaghy hopes that will be the case again this year. "In our 'past glories', when we were qualifying for World Cups, the support of the public here in Northern Ireland has been crucial," he said. "It's an crucial factor, and lots of efforts have been made to involve the local community in the U19 finals. The backing of the home support is often worth an extra man and I hope the general public in Northern Ireland, as well as the football fans, come out to support us."