If people hadn’t heard of Michael McGovern before the European Championships, they will certainly know who he is now after the Enniskillen goalkeeper announced himself on the big stage with some top drawer performances for Michael O’Neill’s side, including an unbelievable display against World champions Germany to help secure Northern Ireland’s progress through to the last 16.
The journey came to an end on Saturday when Northern Ireland were beaten by Wales but the tournament is an experience that McGovern will never forget.
“The overall experience was amazing and way beyond my expectations. I thoroughly enjoyed every single minute of it, it was brilliant,” McGovern told The Impartial Reporter.
There was little Michael could do to stop Wales’ winner on Saturday as Gareth McAuley turned Gareth Bale’s cross into his own net, and it was a harsh result as Northern Ireland had more than held their own over the course of the 90 minutes. McGovern, though, says that these are the things you learn to live with in football. 
“I think we deserved to get something out of the game but in football you have to accept that sometimes it goes for you and sometimes it doesn’t and it didn’t go for us on that day. You can’t look back with regrets, you can only go out and give it your best shot and we did that. It just didn’t fall for us on the day but that’s football,” he explained.
Northern Ireland enjoyed great support throughout the tournament from the Green And White Army, and the backing the team got from the fans was McGovern’s abiding memory of the last couple of weeks.
“The fans were probably the best thing about it,” he said. 
“The way they supported us, they were just immense and the whole thing was just unbelievable.”
Having got the taste for the very top level of international tournament football, Fermanagh man McGovern says he is keen for more.
“It would be something else to go back and play in the championship in four years time and I think we have a chance. That’s what we have to do, we have to look to qualify again, you don’t want it to be another 30 years waiting to qualify. We have to go out and build on this.
“There’s also the World Cup. That’s the things you have to be striving towards, you have to set yourself these golden targets . It will be difficult to win the group in our World Cup Qualifiers with Germany in it but we have to be looking at that second spot and getting into the play offs and we are more than capable of getting that.”
The Euros also put McGovern in the shop window and with his contract up at Hamilton it would be surprising if he hasn’t a number of options on the table in the coming weeks. And McGovern says that he will sit down with his agent this week.
“I only spoke to my agent briefly during the tournament because I wanted to focus just on the football. 
“Now that it’s over I’ll probably speak to him this week and see what options I have and hopefully get something sorted. 
“I think the tournament has been great for myself personally, I don’t think it has done me any harm at all. 
“I’ve showed I can handle playing at that level which I knew I could and it was a great opportunity for me,” he concluded.