Lithuania 1-4 Northern Ireland: Under-pressure visitors deliver emphatic away victory
- Published
Shayne Lavery and Conor Washington combined well up front for Northern Ireland
Northern Ireland secured a vital 4-1 victory in Lithuania to keep their World Cup qualification hopes alive.
Daniel Ballard opened the scoring and Conor Washington netted a penalty before Rolandas Baravykas pulled one back for the hosts.
Bailey Peacock-Farrell then saved a Arvydas Novikovas spot-kick, with Shayne Lavery restoring the under-strength visitors' two-goal margin.
Paddy McNair completed the scoring with Northern Ireland's second penalty.
The victory was a first in Group C for Ian Baraclough's men, and a first in 90 competitive minutes for the manager, who opened the campaign with a 2-0 defeat away to Italy before a disappointing 0-0 draw at home to Bulgaria.
They remain third in the table, six points behind leaders Italy, but know that a win at Windsor Park over Switzerland on Wednesday night would see them move a point ahead of the Swiss and into second.
Northern Ireland's victory was even more impressive given that they made the trip to Vilnius without influential Premier League players Jonny Evans and Stuart Dallas, with Corry Evans, Josh Magennis, George Saville and Liam Boyce also missing.
Saville will be available again after suspension for the Switzerland game, before which they have a friendly against Estonia to navigate, although McNair added to the list of key players unavailable by picking up a booking that will see him suspended for the Belfast encounter.
Determined Northern Ireland respond emphatically
Peacock-Farrell's penalty save was a huge moment for Baraclough's side
With their qualification hopes hanging in the balance, Northern Ireland were under huge pressure going into what was labelled a must-win game, but the players responded superbly to record what was an emphatic win in the end.
Baraclough's men made an untidy start to the match and allowed the hosts a sight of goal before Ballard scored his first international goal on 20 minutes, tapping home an excellent low Washington cross after captain Steven Davis showed fine poise to play the Charlton striker in down the left.
Washington doubled NI's lead seven minutes after the interval, finding the corner with a penalty after Michael Smith's shot from a surging run was blocked by the hand of the sliding Linas Megelaitis.
It heralded a frantic 15-minute period with Baravykas drilling home an unstoppable angled drive from distance to bring the hosts back into the match and Baraclough will no doubt have been fearing the worst when McNair brought Justas Lasickas down in the box after a Craig Cathcart mistake.
However, as he has now done a number of times since launching his international career in 2018, Sheffield Wednesday keeper Peacock-Farrell dived to his left to make a good penalty save from Novikovas.
Livewire Lavery was at his instinctive best to restore Northern Ireland's two-goal margin with his first senior international goal on 67 minutes, adjusting his feet to side-foot home a volley off the underside of the crossbar from a Jordan Thompson cross.
McNair put thoughts of his suspension to the back of his mind to complete the scoring eight minutes from time, lashing home from the penalty spot after the evergreen Davis was upended while making a late surge into the box.
Lavery to the fore as supporting cast takes centre stage
Former Everton forward Lavery left Linfield for Blackpool in May
Alongside the enormity of the match in terms of Northern Ireland's World Cup qualification hopes, the other narrative that dominated the build-up to the game was the number of their key players and regular starters that were unavailable.
The list of pull-outs, which started last week with Jonny Evans and ended with Dallas just the day before the game, must have tested even Baraclough's ever-upbeat demeanour, but he insisted the absentees offered an opportunity for squad players to step up.
Lavery epitomised what his former NI Under-21 boss meant with a performance full of pace, perspiration and persistence, which ultimately was rewarded with a well-deserved goal for the former Linfield man who has made a fine start to life at Blackpool.
He miskicked a good chance from an inviting Jamal Lewis cross early on then just before the break was played in by a lovely lofted pass by Thompson, but snatched at his left-foot shot and missed the target.
It may have been easy for his head to go down but that is not in his nature and, having linked up well with Washington throughout, was in the right place to grab what he will hope is the first international goal of many.
It is doubtful that the 22-year-old will get much of a chance to add to his goal tally in Sunday's friendly against Estonia, but he - along with Thompson and the once-again-impressive Ali McCann - will be hoping for another start as 16,000 supporters return to Windsor Park for the Switzerland encounter.