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Aaron Hughes ready to get job done against Germans

LACK of work has never prevented Irishmen from heading to tournaments – but rarely does one of them end up actually playing.

Aaron Hughes may be “on the dole” but he certainly did his job in the victory over Ukraine last Thursday night and is aiming to keep producing the goods against Germany tomorrow evening.

Released by Australian side Melbourne City at the end of April, the 36-year-old put any personal concerns aside to focus fully on Northern Ireland’s Euro 2016 campaign.

“Melbourne was finished and I knew we were meeting up here. I made a conscious effort not to worry – what’s the point in worrying about it?

“I thought I may as well just go, throw myself into it and do the work that I’ve been doing to try and keep myself in good condition. There’s nothing like game-time. You can train all you want, but when you don’t have that you’ve got to try and replicate it as best you can.

“All those little sessions I’ve been doing to try and do that and stay in good condition, I just threw myself into it and immersed myself in it and hoped that would be enough.

“Michael [O’Neill]’s been really supportive over the last 12 months – that was a big thing too. It took a weight off my mind that I could just go, keep my head down, work hard and hopefully get here. I’ll worry about all that afterwards but I just want to enjoy this.

“That’s why I want us to stay in the competition – because I’ve got no job to go to. I just wanted to come here and experience the competition and hopefully get some game-time.

“I have no plans. I have made a conscious effort not to think about it. I just want to enjoy this. I’ll probably never get another chance to do it. I’ll worry about it when this is all over.”

Some – let’s call him ‘Lee Dixon’ – may have suspected a touch of sentimentality in Michael O’Neill for including Hughes in the squad, never mind the team.

Yet they don’t know either the manager or this player, who has never let NI down. Hughes himself wasn’t as shocked as most observers by the five changes from the starting line-up that faced Poland, revealing: “He’d talked about that before, a couple of weeks before. We’d worked on a few things in training.

“We know we can work a few systems and we’d said how the Poland game was going to be different to the Ukraine game, which is going to be different to the Germany game, and he might have to do that.

“That’s why the emphasis was on the squad, as a 23-man squad, we really had to work hard and be switched on for the whole tournament.

“You saw that, there were changes made and the players that came in did a good job, the ones who came off the bench had an impact.

“I think that’s the most satisfying thing. It has been a real squad effort up to now. Even after the first game, everyone was a little bit down and helped pick each other up and we got our rewards.”

The Cookstown man’s appearance in Lyon took him into his second century of caps and he insisted that the victory over Ukraine was the best moment of those 101 games: “It’s got to be the top, it’s got to be. We’ve had some really good results in the past: the qualification was big, we beat England, we beat Spain, and had glory nights like that.

“Obviously they will always be special but to come away with a win, on this stage, it doesn’t get much bigger than this. You saw the scenes at the end, the atmosphere and the emotion, it’s the highlight of my career so far.”

Northern Ireland v Germany: a preview

His personal performance, up against the highly-rated Yevhen Konoplyanka of Sevilla, was remarkable given that the last time he’d completed a full game was in “January, maybe”.

“At the end I think everyone was out on their feet out there, the effort that was put in. In a way I’m glad it wasn’t just me.

“When you’re playing at this level against those players, it only takes a second to produce a bit of quality to change the game.

“You’ve got to be at it for the full 96 minutes. That’s a little bit satisfying that I managed to get through a game after not playing in so long. It’s just all the hard work between then and now has paid off. That’s equally satisfying.”

Typically modest, Hughes passed praise onto his team-mates, saying: “You get help from the players around you, that’s something we worked really hard on.

“It’s not just having to come up one-on-one, you always know there’s someone coming up, or making up some yards for you, giving you the confidence to push in tight because you know someone is covering in behind.

“They are top-quality players and I think it’s good to be able to play against those players. You want to be on this stage. You relish it in one way and when you come off the pitch, with a 2-0 win, of course you’re satisfied.”

Asked if he’s ready to go again against the World Cup-holders tomorrow night in Paris, he laughed: “Hopefully. You’ve got to recover and go again. We got to enjoy [the win]…but then we’ve got to get our heads back on this because, ultimately, that’s what a tournament is. You enjoy the little moments but then you go again.”

Understandably he’s happy that a point in Paris will probably mean progress: “Of course. I think anyone would have [taken that], not just us.

“This is even different to a qualifying campaign – this is the top, these are the best 24 teams in Europe and it’s great to be amongst that and competing in that.

“If you said to anyone you’re in with a chance of going through heading into the last game, most teams would have taken that.”

Job not quite done – but with men like Aaron Hughes involved Northern Ireland have a great opportunity.