Sammie Szmodics

The 42-year-old former defender won 118 senior caps for Ireland during a distinguished playing career which brought him five Premier League titles, an FA Cup, three League Cups and a Champions League in his 12-year spell at Manchester United.

Having been placed in temporary charge of the national team as the Football Association of Ireland prepares to unveil Stephen Kenny’s successor early next month, O’Shea, who grew up as a footballer under the watchful eye of Sir Alex Ferguson, will head into Saturday’s clash with the Belgians concentrating only on the 90 minutes in front of him.

Speaking at his pre-match press conference, he said: “It’s an incredible honour to be manager of your country, to get the chance to represent Ireland from U-15 onwards and all the levels, captain your country.

“The chance to be involved coaching with the Under-21s and the senior team and now being manager, it’s amazing, one that myself and my family are really proud of.

“When you first get the players together and chatting to them the first time as well, that’s the key part and sets the tone for the week ahead. That’s where I just kept it in my head very simple in terms of the staff that I brought in.

“I will be able to touch into those connections afterwards, as well in terms of the learnings from the two games and how you progress.

“That will be a big thing, too, but ultimately, I just want to focus on the staff, myself and the players and not be worried about too much outside noise.”

O’Shea, who worked with the senior team under Kenny after stepping up from the Under-21 ranks and will serve as head coach for Saturday’s game and Tuesday’s friendly against Switzerland, plans to inform the players of his team selection on Friday, and then take a low-key approach ahead of kick-off.

He said: “I’ve worked under many managers that have played at different levels, and it’s just a case of you’re trying to get a connection as soon as you can with the players to make them feel relaxed because, ultimately – as I’ve stressed before – they’re the key to everything.

“They’re the key to performing to winning matches and you just have to try and get that connection with the group. And whatever team is selected, they’re backing each other up no matter what.”

O’Shea could hand senior debuts to in-form Blackburn forward Sammie Szmodics, Lyon defender Jake O’Brien and Middlesbrough midfielder Finn Azaz, while Southampton defender Ryan Manning has joined up with the squad after recovering from injury.

He said: “The good thing is there are good players in form and it’s a nice problem to have in a good few positions.”

Belgium, who are ranked fourth in the world by FIFA, will be without injured superstars Kevin de Bruyne and Romelu Lukaku as they defend an 11-game unbeaten run in all competitions.

Bailey Cadamarteri’s opener was cancelled out by Sammie Szmodics, but Marvin Johnson and Josh Windass struck in the last 12 minutes to earn the division’s bottom club only their second win of the campaign.

Wednesday had scored in stoppage time in midweek to hold leaders Leicester and their latest late show left Rohl delighted with his side’s progress.

Rohl said: “My team fight until the end and they believe in what we are doing. I’m so happy to take the points today.

“We spoke in the past about what happens if we concede a goal. When you look back to the Millwall game, we conceded a goal and then it was maybe not much energy in the group, but now you see we improve this mentally.

“After the defeat in Birmingham, now we took four points and I think this is a huge step forward.

“I try to show my players every day that we have to believe and that I’m convinced in my players.

“Maybe it’s sometimes helpful to come from some big clubs because then you have a little bit of the winning DNA in yourself and you always believe in the special things you can do.”

To compound Blackburn’s misery, manager Jon Dahl Tomasson was shown a red card following protests to the match officials over an incident involving James Hill and Callum Paterson in the build-up to Wednesday’s second goal.

Blackburn skipper Szmodics faced the post-match interviews in the manager’s absence but could not shed further light on the incident.

“I’ve not seen it,” he said.

“There’s a ref, two linesmen and a fourth official. It’s hard to speak this early after a game. I don’t want to get in any more trouble. The gaffer has got into trouble with it.

“It’s tough at the minute. You don’t know if you can go and speak to referees or not. I’ll let people look back at the goal and make their decision.”

Szmodics, who scored his seventh goal in five games, felt the scoreline was harsh on the visitors.

He said: “I don’t think it should have been a 3-1. We‘ve got back into the game with a goal and it just wasn’t to be today.

“The gaffer said at half time that we created chances. We just needed to take one and in the first half we didn’t. In the second half we got back into it, but it wasn’t our day.

“It was one of the few headers I’ve ever scored. I should have volleyed it but I went down early and managed to get enough power into it.”

“We’ll recover and get to go again.”