Josh Sheehan Prepares for Ghana Test After World Cup Disappointment
Josh Sheehan walks into camp with promotion still buzzing in his legs and a World Cup hangover in his head.
Fresh from steering Bolton Wanderers up to the Championship via the League One play‑offs, the midfielder has barely had time to let that success settle. The celebrations stop; the red shirt comes out. Now it is Cymru, not club, that demands his attention.
And the mood around the national side is very different.
From penalty pain to Nations League fire
Back in March, Craig Bellamy’s team stood one kick from a World Cup. They left the pitch with nothing. A penalty shoot-out defeat to Bosnia & Herzegovina ended the dream and left a scar that has not yet faded.
Sheehan does not try to dress it up.
“Of course there’s disappointment,” he says. “We all wish we were preparing for the World Cup right now, but we’re not. It’s disappointing, but we have to learn from it.
“We believe we should have been there, but now our focus is on the Nations League and the challenges ahead.
“We’ve got to learn from what happened and look forward. We’ve got some big games coming up and that’s the level we believe we should be at. We want to keep moving forward as a group.”
That is the line from inside the camp: use the hurt, don’t hide from it. The shoot-out in March becomes fuel for the autumn, when Cymru step into League A of the UEFA Nations League alongside Portugal, Norway and Denmark. No hiding place there either. Those are the nights this group believes it belongs in.
Ghana in Cardiff: a different kind of test
Before that, Ghana arrive in Cardiff on Tuesday night. World Cup-bound, confident, and using this game as a final tune-up before the biggest stage.
For Cymru, it is something else. A measuring stick. A chance to test themselves against a side that expects to make noise at the tournament.
“They’re a good team and they’ve got some very big, important players who are at the top of their game,” Sheehan says. “We know going into the game it’s going to be tough.
“It’s a warm-up game for them going into the World Cup, and I think they’re a nation going into it looking to give it a real go. So we know it’s going to be a tough game, but we’re more than confident that if we do what we do and perform to our levels, then it’s going to be a good game.
“It’s one of those games where, going forward, we know they’ve got threats we’re going to have to be wary of. But we also look at it from our perspective as well, we know we can hurt them too.”
That balance – respect without fear – runs through his words. Ghana’s pace and power will stretch Bellamy’s side, but Cymru see chances of their own. This is not a friendly to coast through; it is a rehearsal for nights against Portugal and Denmark, for dealing with elite movement and ruthless finishing.
A familiar face in new colours
There is also a personal sub-plot for Sheehan. Across the halfway line he could see a player he knows well: Ghana forward Antoine Semenyo, once his team‑mate at Newport County and now one of the Premier League’s most dangerous attackers.
“I’ve played with Antoine Semenyo before, and he’s done so well in his career, now at Man City,” Sheehan says. “He was a quiet boy, but when he stepped on the pitch, honestly, straight away he was so strong, so fast, so direct.
“You could tell from that moment he was going to go on and have a good career. He did well in that FA Cup game [2-1 win against Leicester City] and from then he was already being linked with big clubs. So from that point you knew he was going to go on.
“When he was at Newport he was only 18, but he carried himself on the pitch like he was a lot older. You could see it straight away, good with his left foot, good with his right foot, strong. Even at 18, he wasn’t fully developed yet, but you could tell in the next few years he was going to kick on.”
Those memories colour the challenge ahead. Sheehan has seen up close what Semenyo can do when he squares up a defender and goes. Now he may have to help stop him.
Turning hurt into an edge
So Cardiff gets a World Cup dress rehearsal without being at the World Cup. Ghana sharpen their tools; Cymru sharpen their edge.
The penalty miss in March still lingers, but Bellamy’s squad cannot afford to sit in the gloom. League A awaits, with Portugal, Norway and Denmark looming on the horizon. Ghana, with all their attacking threat and ambition, offer a glimpse of that level.
For Sheehan, who has just climbed a division with Bolton, the message is simple: carry that momentum into the red shirt, carry the pain of March into every tackle and pass.
The World Cup has gone. The response to that failure starts on Tuesday night.
