O'Neill and Northern Ireland on a high

• Northern Ireland follow opening win in Hungary with 2-0 defeat of the Faroe Islands
• Michael O'Neill thrilled with home team's "really strong" performance
• "We made a terrible start," says Faroese coach Lars Olsen
• Next games: Greece v Northern Ireland, Faroe Islands v Hungary (Tuesday)

Michael O'Neill, Northern Ireland manager
I'm delighted with the performance and the three points – and six points in the two games. It's a little bit early to be looking at the group, that's for the supporters to enjoy. The target after the game in Hungary was to take three points tonight and I thought we did that with a really strong performance.

First half I thought we were superb; I knew it would be difficult to maintain those levels, we tired in certain areas of the pitch. It was one of those games where if we got to 3-0, which we probably should have done before half-time, then we may have added more goals. But the important thing was to win and that's what we've done.

Maybe over the years 2-0 has been a difficult lead for us, and we've maybe caused anxiety at times when we haven't needed to, but certainly tonight I felt that the penalty [which the Faroes missed] would have given them a lifeline that on the balance of play they probably wouldn't have deserved.

Second half there was a maturity about our play, but I felt we put so much into the first half that we tired a bit in the second. That was understandable, we played a little bit conservatively but obviously we have to go and play again on Tuesday night.

Lars Olsen (left) and Michael O'Neill watch on©Getty Images

There are lads in the dressing room who have drawn in the Faroes and been heavily criticised for those types of games, and we know in the last campaign the Luxembourg result away from home – games we should have won where we didn't perform to the level we are capable of. The campaign is about momentum and getting that into the group as soon as possible, and that's what we've managed to do.

Had we not taken three points tonight it would obviously have diminished the significance of winning in Budapest, and we haven't allowed that to happen. So now we go into the next two fixtures with everything to gain. They are going to be very difficult games, away in Greece and away in Romania, but equally we've put ourselves in a position with everything to gain based on the first two results.

Lars Olsen, Faroe Islands coach
We made a terrible start to the game. We were prepared and had spoken about how they would throw everything they had at us to decide the match early on. And that, unfortunately, is exactly what they did.

It was from set pieces where we had our biggest problems. And it was from two of these that they killed the game off within about 20 minutes.

From about 25 minutes on, I think we got more into the game and then we got the penalty, which we unfortunately didn't make the best use of. If we had scored that, then the match would have been open again.