Montenegro 0-2 Northern Ireland: Lauren Wade and Demi Vance head visitors to first-leg victory

Northern Ireland took a big step towards retaining their League B status with a 2-0 win over Montenegro in the first leg of the Nations League play-off.

Lauren Wade headed home in the 70th minute to give Northern Ireland a deserved lead in Podgorica.

Demi Vance headed home a second in injury-time to give Tanya Oxtoby's side a buffer ahead of the second leg.

The return fixture takes place at Windsor Park on Tuesday.

Northern Ireland, ranked 42 places above their opponents, had dominated possession and got their reward when Wade's pin-point header from Vance's cross found the bottom corner.

Vance gave Northern Ireland an additional buffer heading into the second leg when she stooped low to finish Rebecca McKenna's cross in injury-time.

• Montenegro v Northern Ireland - as it happened

Oxtoby's side were heavy favourites but the hosts almost took a shock lead inside 90 seconds when record scorer Armisa Kuc somehow headed over from a corner when it looked easier to score.

From there, Northern Ireland dominated possession in Podgorica but were missing that clinical touch in front of goal.

After Kuc's early header, Wade, Sarah McFadden and Danielle Maxwell all had half chances to break the deadlock.

The best chance of the half fell to Wade, when she was played through by Joely Andrews after a blistering counter attack but the Reading winger could only fire narrowly wide.

Montenegro, who scored 11 goals in two home matches in December's window, struggled to create chances, with their best effort from play coming when Kuc tamely shot into the arms of Maddy Harvey-Clifford.

Oxtoby's side picked up where they left off after the restart and Maxwell had a half chance before Wade forced Krstovic into a smart stop with a low drive from the edge of the area.

Northern Ireland continued to dominate possession and Montenegro almost struck on the counter attack when Kuc almost beat Laura Rafferty in a foot race but goalkeeper Harvey-Clifford managed to race out and clear the ball.

With Montenegro sitting deeper and deeper, Vance let fly with a 25-yard effort which was well tipped over by Krstovic.

The pressure finally told when Wade headed home with 20 minutes to play before Vance increased the away side's advantage at the midpoint of the tie with a close-range header in the 90th minute.