IAN Evatt believes Eoin Toal deserves his chance to shine for Northern Ireland in the Euro qualifiers tonight.

The Bolton Wanderers boss has helped Toal establish himself in English football after his move from Derry City last season and get his first international call-up in March.

As yet, the centre-back remains uncapped, missing a golden opportunity in the summer when an ankle injury forced him out of a training camp for qualifiers in June against Kazakhstan and Denmark.

But Evatt feels Toal is now ready to take the next step and show he can be a long-term answer for Michael O’Neill’s side, who are due to face San Marino in Belfast.

“I really hope that Eoin gets a chance because he hasn’t had one yet,” he told The Bolton News. “He is looking strong, he has settled really well at Bolton.

“He won’t let them down, I can tell you that much for certain.

“He is a brilliant young player with a huge future for that country and they have had some wonderful centre-halves, I know Craig Cathcart very well and he was one of the best centre-backs I played with in my career.

“Craig is coming to the end of his career now and I think Northern Ireland have some young players who deserve an opportunity and Eoin is one of those, in my opinion.

“The squad is going through a transitional phase at the moment but I have no doubt at all that Eoin can go and be a part of it for a very long time.”

Northern Ireland desperately need back-to-back wins against San Marino and Slovenia to stand any chance of qualification – but they do have fond memories of tonight’s opponents, who were beaten 2-0 back in March thanks to two goals from Dion Charles.

The Wanderers striker is available for selection despite carrying a shoulder problem picked up in last month’s League One defeat at Reading.

Northern Ireland star Paddy McNair admits the qualifying campaign so far has failed to reach the expected standards as injuries added to the pain of a five-game run of defeats.

“It has been frustrating,” he told the Belfast Telegraph. “Obviously with the first games, it’s all been small margins, three or four 1-0s. After we beat San Marino, Finland narrowly beat us at home and I think the big moment was possibly Denmark, we had that goal disallowed in the 90th minute or whatever it was.

“Coming out of there with a point would have been big and we maybe carried that disappointment into the Kazakhstan game at home so I think it’s just been a frustrating campaign. It’s not gone how we would have hoped.

“Was it a missed opportunity? I think when the group came out…Denmark are a good team but they’re not a Germany or a France or Portugal so you could say yeah.

“I think we expected to do a lot better than what we have. The biggest thing is not going into those last couple of games with a chance.”