Slovakia 1-0 Northern Ireland: Michael O’Neill’s side look to play-offs after sucker punch in Kosice
When the clock struck 90 minutes in Slovakia, the visitors were on course for a point that would have left them in pole position for second spot and qualifying from Group A’s own spot in the play-offs without the need to rely on their Nations League success.
Had they held on, or had referee Istvan Kovacs ruled out Tomas Bobcek’s stoppage-time winner for a push on Daniel Ballard, it would not have changed the reality that this was their worst performance of what has been an otherwise encouraging campaign.
Such an outcome always felt a distinct possibility given their notable absentees for the game.
In Kosice, Shea Charles was a massive loss but nobody who has watched Northern Ireland during O’Neill’s second tenure would have expected anything less.
Brad Lyons and George Saville performed determinedly in the middle of the park throughout but arguably, outside of Conor Bradley, there is no player more important to the cause than classy Southampton midfielder Charles.
Not to say that Northern Ireland have not tested the theory through the campaign.
They have been without Bradley and Ethan Galbraith for a game apiece because of suspensions while, when all is said and done, Sunderland centre-back Daniel Ballard will have played in only three of the six fixtures.
Throw in Ali McCann’s absence for this window, and the fact that first-choice goalkeeper Pierce Charles has missed the entire campaign, and you get a sense of how O’Neill’s depth has been tested.
It is surely no coincidence that their strongest performance – the 2-0 home win over Slovakia last month – was produced by their strongest team on paper.
“The one thing we’ve learnt during this campaign is that you can lose a player at a moment’s notice,” said O’Neill.
“You’re never in control of that, but hopefully come March, the challenges we’ve had through this group with players missing, we’ll not have and we’ll be as strong as we can be.”