Northern Ireland women: Tanya Oxtoby sees NI’s ‘growth’ after securing play-off

Northern Ireland boss Tanya Oxtoby believes their 1-1 draw with Bosnia-Herzegovina in the Nations League in Zenica shows the “growth” of her side.

Captain Simone Magill’s composed finish was cancelled out by Sofija Krajsumovic’s equaliser for Bosnia, but NI saw out the draw which secured second place in the group and a promotion play-off.

That is an improvement on their third-place finish in the last edition of the Nations League, and despite the nervy nature of the draw, Oxtoby praised the application of her players to grind out a result.

“It’s always a difficult place to come with the travel, I thought we should have scored a few more in the first half and we conceded a sloppy one, but to show the character to see the game out that’s all that matters at this point,” she said.

“In international football there are no easy games, I said all along every game was going to be competitive in this group and you have to show the character and resilience.

“You have to win when it’s not pretty and get results when it’s not pretty and we’ve certainly done that when there have been times previously when we haven’t, so for me, that is growth.”