Prior to tonight’s clash with Albania, Northern Ireland had the mark of a second half team. Flip the coin whatever way you want. Slow out of the blocks. Fighting until the final ball.
Manager Tanya Oxtoby put it largely down to the “learning process” in the build-up. Making mistakes is natural. Even more so given the fact that former Chelsea assistant Oxtoby only took the reins in 2023.
But sometimes you can’t account for class. Albania learned that the hard way. For Northern Ireland, their play-off hopes are still alive in League B of the Nations’ League.
You can’t account for skill and you can’t account for brilliance. Tonight Simone Magill left the number crunchers scratching their heads as she put in a performance that displayed all of those things.
Making her international debut as a 15-year-old, Magill always seemed destined for greatness. Now the girl wonder is a woman of 29, and she has become all of the things people thought she might.
Her step more assured, her nous incomparable, but her style still showing glimpses of a fleet-footed teenager with the world at her feet. Now it’s in her hands.
Goals either side of half-time extended a goalscoring record that began so long ago yet shows no signs of slowing.
It’s hard to believe this was a woman who had fallen out of love with the game, tortured by an ACL injury and a stagnant club career. 24 international goals. 24 moments that so many would bite your hand off to feel just once.
Danielle Maxwell is one who could tell you of the significance. It’s only a month since she hit her first international goal. Just as she was in the headlines, so too was her father, reduced to tears, lost in the moment.
Tonight she did it again. Let’s hope Mr Maxwell had the handkerchiefs packed. He knows what she has sacrificed to make it this far just as well as she does.
A substitution may have denied Magill her hat-trick, but soon Keri Halliday was into the fray, the young woman handed an international debut having starred for Linfield this season in the Women’s Premiership.
Even from the start, this looked little other than a formality in Tirana. It was a city founded by the Ottoman Empire, but Albania were a far cry from their rebellious ancestors of yesteryear.
Magill’s first was all the confirmation you needed that Oxtoby’s women were set to capture the flag on their European adventure. Tonight, they were far from a second-half team.
Maybe the “learning process” has been bedded in. Maybe there are great things to come.
Tuesday night will give us the real indicator, as Katie McCabe and the Republic of Ireland come to town.
There is no doubt however that this is progress. A marked improvement, something to build on. There really is nothing like winning.
