Shea Charles told BBC Sport NI that Northern Ireland had “lots of captains on that pitch” after skippering his team to a 2-0 Nations League win over Belarus at Windsor Park on Friday night.
After dominating the first half but failing to find the net, a Dan Ballard headed goal and Dion Charles’ penalty proved enough to secure an ultimately comfortable victory.
At just 21 years old, Charles, on loan at Sheffield Wednesday from Southampton, became Northern Ireland’s youngest ever captain when he led his team-mates out in Belfast.
Northern Ireland manager Michael O’Neill has been trialling different captains during the autumn Nations League series, with Trai Hume and Conor Bradley assuming the role in previous international windows.
“Since all the young lads have come into the team we’ve had to take on some responsibility and I think that showed,” said Charles.
“Walking the team out to that crowd and atmosphere, it was a bit surreal really.
“And to have my brother behind me [goalkeeper Pierce Charles], it was special. All the boys we’ve known each other for a while now and the relationship within the group is just building and building.”
Charles revealed there was no sense of panic in the Northern Ireland dressing room at half-time after O’Neill’s side drew a blank in the opening period despite their superiority.
Northern Ireland failed to break down the Belarusian rearguard when the sides drew 0-0 in their previous meeting in Hungary in October.
This time Ballard netted from a corner five minutes after the break, before Dion Charles converted his spot-kick in the 63rd minute after Kirill Pechenin was adjudged to have handled in the area.
“When we came in we said we couldn’t really let it get into that phase of the game where it slows down, then we scored quite early in the second half and we managed a second goal, so it was good.
“I wasn’t really concerned, we knew we could go out and score goals, we learned from the last time. Michael just came in and told us that we had to exploit certain areas to try and score so it ended up coming from a set-piece, something that we had worked on.
“When you score it’s important not to sit back and I thought we did that. When we scored the second goal we knew we could take a step back and try and control it. We managed to do that well.”
Northern Ireland’s victory was their third in a row at home in the Nations League in Group C3 and they will now complete their campaign with an away game against Luxembourg on Monday.
A draw in that fixture would be enough for NI to top the group and seal promotion.
“Everyone wants to go there and get our first away win of the campaign and I think we’re well capable of doing it,” added Charles.
