Pavelski midway through the third to preserve

Northern Ireland boss Michael ONeill is happy to keep on tinkering with his formation as he looks for a perfect Euro 2016 playing system. ONeill played 45 minutes each in the 1-1 draw with Wales on Thursday with 3-5-2 and 4-3-3 formations, the latter having been his preference for much of their successful qualifying campaign.Northern Ireland will play three more friendlies, against Slovenia on Monday and then Belarus and Slovakia, before their first game in the tournament against Poland on June 12, and ONeill will continue to experiment with his teams shape on an ad hoc basis. When asked about his switch to 3-5-2, ONeill said: We were a little bit disappointed that maybe we didnt have more of an attacking threat with that system.I think the two lads up front worked very hard. Its the first time theyve played together and Kyle (Lafferty) hasnt played much football. There are mitigating factors in that. Kyle Lafferty is hoping for more playing time at Birmingham after being frozen out at Norwich Theres always comfort as a coach and a manager when you say youre going to change to four. We threw Jonny (Evans) in at left-back and he doesnt bat an eyelid and we played in the 4-3-3 and are able to deal with it.Its exactly what we want. In the summer we are going to have to be flexible. Either system has strengths or weaknesses depending on how the games going.The most important thing between now and the end of the summer is the players are able to adapt it and understand it very quickly, and the game on Thursday night gave me a lot more confidence that thats the case.Norwich striker Lafferty played 81 minutes against Wales, hours after completing a loan move to Birmingham, and ONeill hopes his drop down to the Sky Bet Championship for playing time will be to his countrys advantage. Sky Sports Paul Gilmour visits Northern Ireland stars Jonny Evans and Gareth McAuley as they get their Euro 2016 suits fitted Its up to him now to have an impact as well, ONeill added.Birmingham have ambitions and something to play for. That being the case, if he is a contributing factor to them having a good finish to the season then hell be in a better frame of mind when he comes away with us in the summer.One man ONeill will not be considering is Watfords Troy Deeney. Deeney had hoped be might be eligible to play for Northern Ireland, but he misses out by a generation - a great grandparent has Northern Irish roots, not, as is required, a grandparent. Norwich and Northern Ireland striker Kyle Lafferty has agreed to join Birmingham on loan for the rest of the season ONeill told Sky Sports News HQ: I did explore the possibility of Troy representing Northern Ireland - but that was four years ago.The eligibility, that he believed was available, wasnt. He is a generation out in terms of his bloodline to Northern Ireland. Thats all I can say about it. Hes a player we would have loved to have involved. But unfortunately we wont be able to take it further. Also See: Church earns Wales draw Deeney a possible for Irish Fitness focus for Lafferty McAuley: Dont write us off Cheap Astros Jerseys Authentic .Y. -- As if the worst start in franchise history isnt bad enough, Buffalo Sabres President Ted Black braced his teams win-starved fans for potentially more tough times. Cheap Carlos Lee Jersey . At this rate, the Flyers captain is set to be remembered more for a fantastic finish. http://www.cheapastrosjerseys.com/?tag=cheap-mike-scott-jersey . On paper, it looks a little like Andre the Giant taking on a midget wrestler. It has all the makings of a rout with the Americans adding an eighth win in nine outings of this biennial event. The Yanks have eight players in the top 15 in the world while the Internationals have just one. Cheap Justin Verlander Jersey . -- Oakland Athletics starting pitchers Jarrod Parker and A. Cheap MLB Jerseys Authentic .In a statement released Friday, the Catalan club said the Brazil stars recovery would be monitored to determine when he can begin training again.SAN JOSE, Calif. -- Anze Kopitar broke a long scoreless drought for Los Angeles and Jonathan Quick earned his third shutout of the season to help the Kings snap a five-game losing streak with a 1-0 victory over the San Jose Sharks. Kopitars goal late in the second period ended a stretch of more than 154 minutes without a score for the Kings, who avoided their first six-game skid since December 2007. They did it with defence as Quick needed to make only 23 saves, stopping a flurry in the final seconds to seal the win. The game ended a streak of 15 straight games between the California rivals that were won by the home team, including all seven contests in last years second-round playoff series won by the Kings. Los Angeles had dropped nine straight in San Jose since winning Game 5 of a first-round series in 2011 and had not won a regular season game here since Dec. 27, 2010. Alex Stalock made 20 saves for the Sharks, who had won six straight games. But he got little offensive help as San Jose got just nine shots the first two periods and came up empty on three power plays to lose at home in regulation for just the third time all season. The Kings broke their scoreless drought late in the second period on a nifty move by Kopitar. Brent Burns deflected a pass from Jeff Carter to a streaking Kopitar. But Kopitar still managed to gather it and stopped just outside the crease to make Stalock commit before tucking it into the net to give Los Angeles the lead with 2:05 remaining in the second period. The goal was the first for Los Angeles since Kopitar scored early in the first period of a 2-1 lloss at Anaheim last Thursday night, ending a scoreless stretch of 154:43.dddddddddddd It also ended Stalocks franchise-record scoreless streak at 178:55 for San Jose. The Sharks, limited to seven shots at that point, generated more pressure after falling behind with Quick making a good save against Bracken Kearns and San Jose drawing a late penalty against Willie Mitchell. But the Kings killed off that penalty that carried over into the third period. They negated another power play when Joe Thornton was called for hooking 16 seconds into Slava Voynovs cross-checking penalty and then got a strong save from Quick against Joe Pavelski midway through the third to preserve the lead. It was a typical tight defensive start to the game between two of the leagues stingiest teams with a combined 12 shots in a scoreless first period. While the Sharks had a season-low four shots in the period, they did have the best scoring chance when Quick made a sprawling glove save to rob Kearns on the backhand early with most of the net open. The Kings had two good chances late with Stalock stopping Kopitar alone in front with a shoulder save and Mike Richards hitting the post on a one-timer in the closing seconds. NOTES: The Sharks lost their second 1-0 home game this month, falling to Boston on Jan. 11. ... Stalock broke the record held by Evgeni Nabokov, who went 171:18 without allowing a goal in January 2009. ... Kings captain Dustin Brown was booed all night in his first game against San Jose since injuring rookie Tomas Hertl with a knee-on-knee collision last month. ' ' '