Northern Ireland beat Guinea 1-0 despite red card

Northern Ireland manager Michael O'Neill said Tom Atcheson's red card during his side's 1-0 win over Guinea in an international friendly "killed the game".

Atcheson scored the only goal on his first Northern Ireland start when he fired home Isaac Price's cross on nine minutes.

The Blackburn Rovers defender was then shown a straight red card in the second half when he brought down Abdoul Karim Traore as the last man, but NI were able to hang on to win and help build momentum ahead of Monday's match against World Cup bound France.

"The objective was to get minutes into players, and we managed to get basically everyone on the pitch which was nice," O'Neill told BBC Sport NI.

"The sending off killed the game and for the last 20 to 25 minutes, but they showed great character to go and win the game.

"I haven't seen it [the red card incident] back but the player's touch was a good bit away, wide of the goal. I haven't seen how much contact there was, but it did look a bit harsh at the time."

O'Neill used the friendly against the side ranked 80th in the world as a chance to give younger players a chance in the green and white shirt.

Both Liverpool's Kieran Morrison and Arsenal's Ceadach O'Neill made their senior debuts during the lacklustre match.

Stopper Luke Southwood also came off the bench at half-time to make just his second appearance, in what was the first ever meeting between the nations.

"That was Tom [Atcheson's] first start and I thought he played terrific, Ciaron Brown was excellent in the back three and Ruairi McConville," Northern Ireland boss O'Neill added.

"I thought young Ceadach O'Neill did really well when he came on and showed great strength to stay on the ball, but it was really good to see the togetherness of the group.

"Ethan Galbraith has not played since March and Ali McCann has not played after March and gave us a great shift as well. Right through the squad, they worked really hard to keep a clean sheet and win the game."

Northern Ireland will now travel to Lille to face France in their final preparation match before the World Cup.

O'Neill added that there will be "no expectation" on his side on Monday (20:10 BST) against the nation who sit second in the Fifa rankings.

"They are certainly one of the major favourites for the World Cup," he added.

"It will be a tough challenge and a different approach from our side, we will be as strong as we can be from the start.

"It is a great game, there is no expectation on us, but we have to give a good account of ourselves as well."