Northern Ireland got their first competitive win at Windsor Park in two and a half years as they edged out Lithuania 1-0 on Friday night.
The result delivered a 6/5 winner for Sporting Life readers after our tipster Jake Pearson successfully backed Northern Ireland to taste victory.
After World Cup hopes were ended last month this was a much brighter performance from Ian Baraclough’s men in their penultimate qualifier, but old problems in front of goal remained as – despite Northern Ireland bossing play – only Benas Satkus’ 18th-minute own goal separated the sides.
The win moves Baraclough’s men back up to third in Group C, above Bulgaria who face Switzerland in their final fixture on Monday when Northern Ireland take on Italy.
This was Northern Ireland’s first competitive win here since they beat Belarus 2-1 in Euro 2020 qualifying in March 2019, and first of any kind since the 1-0 friendly win over Luxembourg the following September, both of them under Michael O’Neill.
Baraclough needed a response after the October window brought the disappointment of seeing their World Cup hopes ended by the Swiss compounded by a poor defeat in Bulgaria, and he got it in the opening 45 minutes.
The reward came in the 18th minute as Satkus got his angles wrong trying to defend Paddy McNair’s inswinging corner and headed backwards into his own net.