'We get smacked in the face and rebound'

BBC News

3 days ago

"We get smacked in the face a little bit and rebound really well."Head coach Tanya Oxtoby perfectly summed up Northern Ireland's Nations League campaign after Friday's 4-0 home defeat by Poland. Looking at their five games so far, two things stand out: errors and resilience.One fails to exist without the other and while the former has plagued them and cost them in quite a few games, the latter has offered hope for the future.Looking at errors first; the two goals conceded in defeat in Gdansk in their first game were preventable.In the win against Bosnia-Herzegovina, Emina Ekic's solo run and finish came after the Northern Ireland defence stood off her.The less said about Mihaela Ciolacu's equaliser in the 1-1 draw in Romania the better, as she had an easy finish after Ellie Mason and Rachel Dugdale left the clearance to each other and both missed it.Then on Friday night, the clinical Ewa Pajor burst between two defenders to prod home the opener, Jackie Burns gifted her a second and Northern Ireland failed to clear their lines to allow Paulina Tomasiak to score a third before half-time.However, Oxtoby's side have shown an ability to react to setbacks.They didn't crumble in Gdansk, they fought back to beat Bosnia and after the frustration in Bucharest, they produced their best display of the campaign to beat Romania 1-0 at home.Oxtoby hopes her side can once again dip into their reserves of resilience in Tuesday's crucial game against Bosnia in Zenica, where a win would hand NI a promotion play-off place."I don't have any doubt in my mind we'll perform on Tuesday," she said.
'They're not all the same mistakes'
The Australian was keen not to dwell too much on the theme of errors throughout the campaign as "they're not all the same mistakes"."It's hard to lob them all into one category, there are individual errors and there are group errors the whole campaign, it's about learning from them," she continued.One of the issues for the manager that may be a cause of the high volume of mistakes is an unsettled backline, with chopping and changing occurring in all five games so far.Laura Rafferty has missed the last three games through injury, her absence keenly felt in the heart of defence, with Oxtoby conceding the Rangers defender is "50-50" to be fit for the game in Zenica.With a dearth of natural centre-backs to fit her system, Nadene Caldwell has played there recently, although naturally a midfielder, whilst Linfield youngster Abi Sweetlove was given her debut at Seaview against Poland, but like the rest of the defence, she struggled against Pajor, who scored two and set up the other two goals.
Northern Ireland must 'park' Poland defeat
After the dissection of Friday night's mistakes, focus will quickly turn to Tuesday in Zenica, where a win would help Northern Ireland finish second and secure that all important play-off place and mark an improvement on their last Nations League finish.Captain Simone Magill said NI are "hurting" after the Poland loss, but she repeatedly spoke of the need to "park" the result."We were very clear at the start of this campaign about what we wanted to go after, and that's still very much in our hands," she said. "Despite Friday's result that doesn't change for us. We have been on quite a journey, and this is where we want to be. "We want to be back in the mix competing off the back of the last Euros, we didn't want that to be a one off and if we get the result we want, we are right back in the mix."