Northern Ireland 2-1 Kosovo: Josh Magennis nets stoppage time winner to seal comeback victory

Josh Magennis headed in the winner in stoppage time as Northern Ireland came from behind to finally cap their Nations League hoodoo with a 2-1 win over Kosovo at Windsor Park.

Ten minutes after substitute Gavin Whyte gave Northern Ireland hope with the equaliser, the Cardiff winger sent the cross to Magennis to send home a much-needed winner for Northern Ireland and their manager Ian Baraclough.

An afternoon that started with Conor McMenamin becoming the second player in as many days to be sent home by the squad over a video circulating online threatened to get much worse after Vedat Muriqi’s 58th-minute strike again called out fans for the manager’s head. .

But instead, Northern Ireland claimed three points in this competition for the first time in 15 attempts, avoiding the immediate threat of relegation to the bottom lane.

After a miserable run of results in June put his side in a dangerous position, Baraclough had this week tried to create optimism by discussing the return of key players who missed those summer games.

It was reflected on a team overview that showed eight changes from the 2-2 draw with Cyprus here three and a half months ago, with Jamal Lewis making his first appearance since last November and the likes of Corry Evans, Tom Flanagan and Magennis back in the fold.

But there was no McMenamin on the team sheet and less than an hour before kick-off, the Irish FA announced that the 27-year-old, who only made his debut in June, had been sent home after a video surfaced showing the Glentoran winger playing a pro-IRA slogan sings.

That came a day after Kyle Lafferty was sent home during an investigation by his club Kilmarnock into a video in which he allegedly used sectarian language.

The miserable mood continued as Kosovo, which had won 3-2 against Northern Ireland in Pristina earlier this year, threatened early.

Bailey Peacock-Farrell couldn’t hold onto Florent Muslija’s shot and was grateful to see Milot Rashica mess up the follow-up, before again denying Rashica and seeing Fidan Aliti hook a shot over.

It took fifteen minutes for Northern Ireland to threaten, with Betim Fazliji almost turning the ball into his own net after Magennis sent a cross from Paddy McNair on target.

Shortly before half time, there was a better chance when Dion Charles – who made his first start when he won a 12th cap – out of the way of Fazliji, but then put his shot too close to goalkeeper Ari Muric – the man who put Peacock-Farrell on the bank at Burnley.

At the start of the second half, George Saville slid the ball through to Conor Bradley, who turned neatly in to get away from his defender, but then couldn’t get enough power for a left-footed shot.

Charles had the ball in the net 55 minutes into Saville’s play through the middle, but the Bolton striker was denied his first international goal for being offside.

And things got much worse for Northern Ireland just three minutes later, when Kosovo’s record scorer Muriqi found the bottom corner with a sharp shot from the edge of the area.

Northern Ireland revolted. Muriqi blocked Jonny Evans’ header on the line, then Muric blocked a loop attempt by Magennis.

Peacock-Farrell then made a crucial save to deny Muriqi what would have been the deadly blow, and moments later Northern Ireland were level when Shayne Lavery, like substitute, broke away from Fazliji and ran towards the goal, finding traffic but the ball for fellow substitute Whyte to shoot home.

Peacock-Farrell made another save to deny that Zymer Bytyqi and Magennis capitalized on death.