Shea Charles feels Spain experience can help him for both club and country

Northern Ireland’s Shea Charles with Spain’s Fabian Ruiz during Saturday’s friendly at the at San Moix Stadium, Palma. PIC: William Cherry/Presseye.

Northern Ireland's 5-1 friendly defeat in Palma was a tough night for Michael O'Neill's side, but one that can have long-term benefits.

Exposure to this level of opponent is key to Northern Ireland's preparations for next year's World Cup qualifiers, but for Charles, it was also a taste of the sort of level of opposition he and Southampton can look forward to after their promotion from the Championship.

"It's just different when you don't have a lot of the ball," the 20-year-old said. "That might happen more in the Premier League when you're up against better players, it's almost like a test of what it's going to be like."

Charles came through the ranks at Manchester City before joining Southampton last summer. He faced Rodri in training matches many times, but the challenge was elevated when they came face-to-face on the international stage.

"It's not enjoyable, to be completely honest," Charles added. "The way he controls the game, I don’t think anybody does it like him. It’s always good to come up against the best players in the world on the international stage.

"You know what you're coming up against but it's just, how do you stop him controlling the game? We had a game plan to try and stop him but it's hard to stop a player of that quality. He's so focused, you can see that, it's just completely different when you're up against him in a competitive game."

Northern Ireland stunned Spain when Daniel Ballard headed them in front just 70 seconds in, timing his run perfectly to meet a free-kick from St Mirren's Caolan Boyd-Munce, who only found out on Saturday morning he would be making his international debut.

"It meant a lot to even get the nod, but then to start the way we started with big Dan's header, it's the stuff of dreams," Boyd-Munce said. "We were brought back down to earth, but it's the stuff of dreams.

"We poked the bear but there's so much learning in it for us and we spoke about it after, both the good and bad. There's always positives. We had our own chances but there's so much to take from it.

"You have to meet (the challenge) head on, it's sink or swim isn't it? There's nothing to lose and everything to gain in games like this. It's what can we learn. There's no point going into it with a stubborn attitude. We put our best game forward and see what we can learn from it."

Ballard could put his goal up there alongside the best moments he has enjoyed on a football pitch, but just as important was the opportunity to learn from the mistakes Northern Ireland made.

After Pedri levelled in the 12th minute, goals from Alvaro Morata and Fabian Ruiz either side of Pedri's second made it 4-1 at the break, with Mikel Oyarzabal adding a fifth on the hour.

"I think you look at players like Morata, his movement was really good and really hard to deal with it," Ballard said. "Playing next to Jonny (Evans), it was nice to speak to him about what we'd done wrong at the time.

"Their movement is so sharp, that’s the level we all want to play at so it's nice to have these experiences and hopefully next time we can do better."