‘Players should play for Northern Ireland’

The Burnley left-back along with fellow Maiden City man Shane Ferguson are in Michael O’Neill’s squad who face Finland tonight, in a friendly, at Windsor Park.

If selected this will be Lafferty’s second cap and he believes more players from the city will be representing their country.

“I don’t see why more players don’t play for the North,” admitted Lafferty.

“It’s a great opportunity for you to be playing at the highest level and if you are good enough then there is a potential of getting maybe 20-30 caps playing for Northern Ireland.

“Also playing at the highest level means you have a better chance of getting noticed and a move across to England or Scotland could happen.”

With two of Lafferty’s former Brandywell team-mates David McDaid and Shane McEleney both involved in Stephen Robinson’s Under 21 side who travel to Tatabanya to face Hungary in a friendly, the 23-year-old now feels more and more talented young players will get their chance with Northern Ireland.

“It’s great to see Shane and Davy both in the under 21 squad and it’s great not just for them but for Derry City and hopefully they do well,” he added.

“I think under Michael’s (O’Neill) management players from the North West are going to get looked at more and more, especially players from Derry City.

“Over the years players who were playing in the League of Ireland were maybe over looked and at times we were all a bit surprised by that, but since Michael has come in and with him having managed Shamrock Rovers, he has widened the pool of players and that can only help us as a squad.”

Having had somewhat of a baptism of fire against Holland in June, the ex-Celtic man is thrilled to be back involved for this evenings friendly and is already looking ahead to next month’s World Cup qualifiers against Russia and Luxembourg.

“It’s great that I’m back in the squad and I’ll be doing my upmost to work hard and try to impress during the training sessions and during the match if I play any part.

“We have a big World Cup qualifier double header coming up next month and I’ll also be hoping to be involved in that squad for those games, so it’s nice to get my foot in the door and be involved for the Finland game.”