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Conor McLaughlin, who signed for the South
London club nine weeks ago, has yet to
experience a qualifying defeat at the stadium.
Of his seven competitive appearances on home
soil so far, the attack-minded right back has won
five and drawn two.
Time flies and memories merge but the fact
remains Northern Ireland last suffered a home
qualifying defeat almost four years ago to the
day.
The date was 6 September in 2013 when a
Cristiano Ronaldo hat-trick inspired Portugal to
a 4-2 win during the 2014 World Cup campaign.
Since then Michael O'Neill's men have won six
and drawn two of their last eight qualifiers in
south Belfast dating back to the start of the Euro
2016 campaign.
During the present World Cup campaign the
team have put Norway (2-0), Azerbaijan (4-0)
and San Marino (4-0) to the sword at the
National Football Stadium.
McLaughlin is eager to extend the positive
sequence in tonight's crucial showdown with
the Czech Republic.
The 26-year-old, who joined Millwall from
Fleetwood Town in July, said: “We've had a
lot of success at home and hopefully that
continues. All the lads love playing at home and
the crowd plays a massive part in that.
“Teams don't really like coming to play in Belfast
because they know they're going to be under a
lot of pressure, not only in terms of how we play
but also because the crowd is on top of them.
“Confidence is high at home and we now go into
these games expecting to win. We approach
them expecting to get results.”
With Northern Ireland chasing down a second
place finish behind Germany in Group C,
McLaughlin believes it would be a “massive
achievement” to seal a World Cup play-off slot.
The eight best runners-up in the nine European
qualifying groups will progress to the draw for
November's two-legged shootout for Russia.
McLaughlin said: “It would be huge because we
were drawn in a pool with a lot of strong teams.
It was always going to be a difficult task.
“At the start of the campaign we knew we'd
probably be one of four teams competing
for second spot but we've given ourselves a
chance.
“We have a tough run-in as we face the Czechs,
Germany and Norway in our last three qualifiers
but we can't look too far ahead.
“Our full focus is on this fixture and it's an
important game because the Czechs have
been our direct rivals for second place. We'll do
everything we can to get the result we need.”
McLaughlin admits it was a tough decision
ending a five-year association with Fleetwood in
the summer, however the lure of Championship
football proved too strong.
While Town lost in the League One play-offs,
Millwall – including Northern Ireland team mate
Shane Ferguson – reached the Wembley final
where they beat Bradford City.
McLaughlin said: “I was at Fleetwood a long
time so it was tough leaving but I felt the next
step for me was the Championship. I wanted to
test myself there.
“It's great Shane is also at Millwall and he has
helped me settle in. It's been great so far and
performance-wise we've been unlucky not to
get more wins.”
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