What pleased Wright most was his players’ application throughout the contest.
While Ben Futcher’s side enjoyed the majority of possession and opportunities, Pierce Charles was largely comfortable in the Northern Ireland goal and England created no gilt-edged openings. When NI used their high press aggressively, they forced England into mistakes and were a threat on the break.
“We want to try and develop a culture where Northern Ireland don’t just get 10 men behind the ball,” said Wright.
“At times we had to do that, but we don’t want to do it for 90 minutes because it normally ends up with the same result, a 1-0 defeat. Yes, they penetrated, yes, they had chances, but I wouldn’t say they had a glaring miss or anything.
“Pierce made good saves, maybe one exceptional save, we put bodies on the line and in the end with England pressing forward we knew we could hit them on the counter attack which we nearly did.
“Now going forward, can we have more possession? Can we do better when we win the ball back?”