For starters, he celebrated his 20th birthday, saw a change of manager with club and country, had surgery on the most serious injury of his short career, and endured a lot of pain when it came to the Boys in Green.
Between the 4-0 win in Gibraltar, where Ferguson scored a first-half goal in a facile win, and Thursday’s clash with Finland, where his goal gave Ireland a victory that was less than convincing, the Brighton player won eight caps but tasted victory just once.
The Meath native had some things to say when he spoke to the media after the win over Finland and before the team flew out to London for tomorrow’s game against England, as he noted an air of negativity around the team. But Ferguson also admits that while criticism – be that from analysts or the crowd, such as the section of the away support in Helsinki who booed the team at the end of a poor first half – is hard to take, the team need results on the field to scatter those dark clouds.
“I don’t watch the media anymore, but we just have to come in and try to win the games, whether we have the pressure or we don’t. That comes with international football,” he says.
“I’m not the only one that sees it. I’m sure you all see it yourselves. It’s not unknown to the Irish public that when it comes to the football it’s always in a negative way.
“I used to see it a bit, especially with Ireland. It’s obviously a lot more negative than positive, so I think we [players] just sort of said we’ll stay away and come together as a team, whatever anyone says, ‘they don’t play football’.
“That’s the way it has been. And especially since I’ve been in, for nearly two years now, it’s always been that way and it’s stayed that way. So we just need to try and turn it around. It comes with results.
“It’s hard to turn off all media, but I think anyone who is looking at Irish football knows that all talk is sort of negative about it. Even with the win, I’d say there’ll be a lot of negative [opinions] about it. But you just have to try and block it out and try to do your best.”
Ferguson was one of only a handful of top-level players on the field in Thursday’s win over Finland, both teams looking like relegation candidates at times in what was a Nations League relegation battle, but he was heartened by the team’s ability to play “ugly” and grind out a win.
“They had a fair few chances as well and we had to come together as a team and try to play ugly, in a way, and we came out with a result. We haven’t had a 1-0 win in a while so it was good to get across the line,” he said, hopeful that a partnership up front with Sammie Szmodics can lead to better days.
“I think you can see on Thursday night, obviously, with Sammie, when we get the confidence and we start getting a run of games in and start winning games, I think everything will be good.
“Sammie has played in many positions. He is comfortable as a striker and he is comfortable dropping down, so he is easy to play with. It’s the same with everyone else up there.”
Ferguson has been tested, mentally and medically, since his previous Ireland goal as he had a barren spell with Brighton and then surgery after a season-ending ankle injury in May.
He feels he’s getting close to full fitness as he feeds off a diet of sub appearances, in the main, for his club.
“It’s a lot harder than I thought it would be since the surgery but I am getting there,” he says.
“It’s hard to say as soon as it [injury] happens with a time-line, it depends on your body but I am glad I didn’t rush it. I am back now and feeling good and I am in the best shape I have been in.
“I think we just have to regroup, recover and go over the game, analyse it and see where we can improve. It’s obviously a quick turnaround against a good team on Sunday, so we’ll have to give it our best.”
Ferguson will relish his debut at Wembley as he missed out with his club two seasons ago when he was unavailable for Brighton’s FA Cup semi-final defeat to Manchester United due to injury.