'Hopefully that's the next step' - Portsmouth midfielder reveals ambitions after showing up Premier League stars on international stage
Terry Devlin is hoping his latest eye-catching performance will have caught the attention of his senior international manager.
The Pompey midfielder, who has already established himself as a firm favourite of Blues head coach John Mousinho following his arrival from Irish League football in 2023, put in a man-of-the-match display as Northern Ireland under-21s held their England counterparts to a goalless draw on Friday night.
The 20-year-old showed he’s more than capable of going toe-to-toe with some of the brightest talent the Premier League has to offer as he outshone the likes of John McAtee, Elliot Anderson, Morgan Rogers and Liam Delap on the international stage.
Now he’s hoping Michael O’Neill will have taken notice as he aims to earn a promotion to the senior set-up in the near future.
Speaking after the surprise result at the Ballymena Showgrounds, the Blues player said: ‘Most of us watched the seniors on Thursday night. Obviously they did really well and seeing the likes of Conor Bradley, Isaac (Price), Callum (Marshall) and Shea (Charles) and all the young lads, even Trai (Hume) captaining them, it’s something we can all look up to.
‘The senior manager will maybe look at tonight and see that we can push the senior boys on and we’re not here to just stay in the 21s.
‘We feel we can push on as well and, hopefully, that’s the next step for most of us as we come to the end of this campaign - that will be the next step in our career.’
Devlin featured 19 times for Pompey last term as the Blues clinched promotion back to the Championship thanks to their League One title win.
There’s no doubt the Ulsterman would have added to that tally if it weren’t for the shoulder injury he picked up against Oxford at the end of January.
And as he put down a marker to be included in Mousinho plans for next Sunday’s Championship return against West Brom, the young midfielder will clearly head back to Fratton Park satisfied with how he fared against more illustrious company.
He added: ‘‘Yeah, obviously, we’re all buzzing with the result - 0-0 against a side like England!
‘It was a really, really tough game and we had to do everything and more to get that result. They’re really, really sharp and really, really top players. We all had to be switched on to the end because we knew how sharp they were and any time we switched off they could just open us up straight away.
‘So it’s an amazing result for us and we’re just all delighted.’
Before heading back to the south coast, Devlin & Co face another daunting task as they welcome current Group F leaders Ukraine to the Showgrounds on Tuesday.