Ciaron Brown admitted he did not even realise he had scored Northern Ireland’s final goal in Friday night’s outstanding 3-0 win over Ukraine.
Brown, earning his 33rd cap, scored his first two international goals although neither was straightforward.
The Oxford defender prodded in a scrappy opener from close range after Ruairi McConville headed down Kieran Morrison’s corner, surviving a VAR check, while his second came courtesy of a horrible moment for Ukraine goalkeeper Dmytro Riznyk.
When Pierce Charles pumped forward a free-kick from inside the Northern Ireland half just after the hour, Brown went up to try to flick it on from the edge of the box but somehow Riznyk let the ball bounce through his legs and trickle over the line.
McConville had been on hand but resisted the urge to get the final touch as Brown savoured his moment.
“If I’m going to talk you through the second (goal), I don’t have a clue,” Brown said. “We’ve worked on set-pieces a lot and I’ve gone to flick it on.
“To be fair, big Ruairi’s done me a massive favour and left it. He’s a better guy than I am and I can only thank him.”
But having been busy battling for the ball, Brown initially thought it was McConville’s goal when he heard the celebrations.
“To be honest, I thought Ruairi tapped it in, but I was just buzzing for the fact that we got another goal,” Brown said.
“Then when we went back and my picture was on the screen I looked at Ruairi and he said, ‘yeah, I left it!’”
While McConville was generous, Jamie Donley initially tried to claim Northern Ireland’s first of the night, which Brown prodded home amid a mass of players inside the six-yard box – with the ball creeping over the line despite a late lunge from Paris St Germain’s Illia Zabarnyi.
“He’ll try claiming anything, to be honest!” Brown joked of Donley, his team-mate at Oxford last season. “He’s just a striker. He was saying, ‘I touched it’ and I was like, ‘I’m pretty sure I kicked it in the net’. But it’s a striker’s instinct.”
While the goals brought Brown the headlines, at the back he helped Northern Ireland keep a third consecutive clean sheet with another display to make Michael O’Neill say the 28-year-old is too good to be playing in League One.
“Over this calendar year I’ve probably got a run of games now and I think you build relationships, and the game gets a bit easier when you have those relationships and I’m involved in a good side,” Brown said.
“There’s good players all around the pitch which makes my job a lot easier.”