Northern Ireland Under-21s beaten at home by Macedonians

Jim Magilton's Northern Ireland Under-21s have only one point from their opening three games

Northern Ireland were beaten 2-1 by Macedonia in their latest European Under-21 Championship qualifier at Mourneview Park.

Josh Doherty put Northern Ireland ahead on 43 minutes but Enis Bardhi levelled after the restart before Kire Markoski hit the winner with five minutes left.

Northern Ireland's Glenavon midfielder James Singleton sustained a broken leg in the game at his home ground.

The result leaves the Irish with one point from their opening three games.

Doherty headed a Darren McKnight corner into the net just before the break after Macedonia had gone close on several occasions to opening the scoring.

Northern Ireland keeper Conor Brennan denied David Babunski and Bardhi while Visar Musliu twice saw headers go just wide before Daniel Avramovski's 37th-minute shot hit the post.

Macedonia levelled moments into the second period when half-time substitute Viktor Angelov set up Bardhi to fire past Brennan.

Glenavon defender Singleton was injured midway through the second period before Macedonia struck the woodwork for the second time from a Babunski shot.

Mikhail Kennedy spurned a great chance to put Northern Ireland back in front when he shot wide when clean through and two minutes after that Macedonia snatched the winner through Markoski.

Northern Ireland lost 2-1 at home to Scotland in their opening qualifier before drawing 1-1 in Iceland.