Josh Sheehan says Cymru must use the disappointment of missing out on the FIFA World Cup as motivation for the challenges ahead, as Craig Bellamy’s side prepare to take on Ghana in Cardiff on Tuesday night (7.45pm).
The midfielder arrived on camp earlier in the week after helping Bolton Wanderers secure promotion to the Championship through the League One play-offs, capping a memorable season at club level.
With international football now back on the agenda, Sheehan’s focus has quickly shifted to helping Cymru build momentum ahead of the upcoming UEFA Nations League campaign.
Cymru missed out on a place at the FIFA World Cup following a penalty shoot-out defeat to Bosnia & Herzegovina back in March, a setback that remains fresh within the squad. However, Sheehan believes it is important the group learns from the experience and channels it into future progress.
“Of course there’s disappointment,” explained Sheehan. “We all wish we were preparing for the World Cup right now, but we’re not. It’s disappointing, but we have to learn from it.
“We believe we should have been there, but now our focus is on the Nations League and the challenges ahead.
“We’ve got to learn from what happened and look forward. We’ve got some big games coming up and that’s the level we believe we should be at. We want to keep moving forward as a group.”
Attention now turns to Tuesday’s test against World Cup-bound Ghana, with Bellamy’s side using the fixture as part of their preparations for the UEFA Nations League campaign in the autumn. Cymru will compete in League A alongside Portugal, Norway and Denmark, facing some of Europe’s strongest sides.
“They’re a good team and they’ve got some very big, important players who are at the top of their game,” he said. “We know going into the game it’s going to be tough.
“It’s a warm-up game for them going into the World Cup, and I think they’re a nation going into it looking to give it a real go. So we know it’s going to be a tough game, but we’re more than confident that if we do what we do and perform to our levels, then it’s going to be a good game.
“It’s one of those games where, going forward, we know they’ve got threats we’re going to have to be wary of. But we also look at it from our perspective as well, we know we can hurt them too.
The fixture could also see Sheehan come up against familiar opposition in Ghana forward Antoine Semenyo, a former Newport County team-mate who has developed into one of the Premier League’s most dangerous attackers.
“I’ve played with Antoine Semenyo before, and he’s done so well in his career, now at Man City,” said Sheehan. “He was a quiet boy, but when he stepped on the pitch, honestly, straight away he was so strong, so fast, so direct.
“You could tell from that moment he was going to go on and have a good career. He did well in that FA Cup game [2-1 win against Leicester City] and from then he was already being linked with big clubs. So from that point you knew he was going to go on.
“When he was at Newport he was only 18, but he carried himself on the pitch like he was a lot older. You could see it straight away, good with his left foot, good with his right foot, strong. Even at 18, he wasn’t fully developed yet, but you could tell in the next few years he was going to kick on.”
Cymru v Ghana
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