We caused problems for ourselves – NI boss Oxtoby

Tanya Oxtoby, manager of Northern Ireland, acknowledged that her side “caused problems for ourselves” with Friday’s 4-0 Nations League defeat by Poland.

Poland made a first-time League A debut with the help of Barcelona’s Ewa Pajor, who scored twice in the opening ten minutes.

With the addition of Pajor, Bosnia-Herzegovina will now face Northern Ireland on Tuesday in the promotion play-off spot against Paulina Tomasiak and Adriana Achcinska.

The plan wasn’t put together as we would have liked, according to Australian Oxtoby of Northern Ireland’s poor start.

We wanted to use the spaces, but we were sloppy with the ball.

We changed our bodies to try to help in that area after causing problems for ourselves.

Oxtoby continued, “The players know we can be better, not one thing, but the”behind the performance and the result, but the.”

Despite the defeat, Northern Ireland still has a chance of advancing to League A for the first time.

Northern Ireland are currently three points ahead of Bosnia-Herzegovina in the play-off spots, and second place secures a spot against a League A side.

Even if NI lose to Zenica, they could still hold onto second place ahead of the Bosnians thanks to Larne’s dramatic 3-2 victory in February. Teams on level points are split by their head-to-head ranking.

Oxtoby added, “We were disappointed with the first half, that goes without saying.

We made some adjustments at half-time, and the result was a better second-half performance.

There are some real positives, but we now need to concentrate on the Bosnia game because we managed to get Abi (Sweetlove) and Aimee (Kerr) on the pitch for their senior debuts.