Northern Ireland must learn from unacceptable mistakes in Poland loss, admits Tanya Oxtoby

Belfast Telegraph

30-05-2025

A nightmare start, in which Poland scored twice inside the opening nine minutes, saw hopes of victory quickly evaporate and those two goals were a horror for Northern Ireland.
First, Martyna Wiankowska was afforded the freedom of Seaview when she had acres of space on the left wing to deliver a cross into the box for Ewa Pajor to score the opening goal after four minutes.
Pajor then took the ball of a the toe of a hesitant Jackie Burns just outside the box before doubling the lead five minutes later.
It is the response from her players in such circumstances and how they reacted over the course of the 80 minutes that followed that is Oxtoby's real focus going into a crucial trip to Bosnia-Herzegovina, with second place in the Nations League group on the line now that top spot has been secured by Poland.
It was a tough night for teenage debutant Abi Sweetlove to come into the defence, while she was later joined on the pitch by Glentoran's Aimee Kerr – which Oxtoby highlighted as positives to take from the game.
'We spoke about starting well and staying in the game and we didn't do that,' said Oxtoby.
'I don't think you can play a team like this and make mistakes. They will punish you. They did that tonight and they did it when we played them away as well.
'It's a lesson to be learned, but that's why they're going to Euros. They're a top side with top players and if you make errors, whether that be collectively or individually, they're going to punish you for that.
'That's the level we want to be at. So we have to take that on the chin and we have to learn from it, and we have to keep moving forward.'
Poland's three major threats, Paulina Tomasiak, Pajor and Adriana Achcinska, combined for the third and fourth goals – the former smashing home after 28 minutes before the latter slotted the fourth a minute into the second half to wreck Oxtoby's half-time reorganisation.
There was a distinct difference from the first two goals, which were heart-breaking for Northern Ireland compared to the sheer quality that Poland displayed for the latter two.
'There were mistakes all over the pitch and I think it's the reaction to that that we're looking for,' said Oxtoby.
'Do you have the resilience to turn that around and really then impact the game in a positive way? Credit to the girls I thought they did that, each and every one of them.
'The changes we made at half-time had an impact, the subs we made during the second half had an impact and the girls will learn from that.
'We've had two debuts tonight and you look at what Poland put out, you look at what we're put out and, you know, we're on a journey and I'll take those mistakes while we're continuing to learn.'
After going three games unbeaten since a 2-0 defeat in Poland, results which had given hope to pipping the Poles for top spot in the group, Oxtoby wasn't completely downbeat.
'There are group errors, there are individual errors across the whole campaign and it's just about learning from those and making sure that we continue to develop the players,' said Oxtoby.
'One result doesn't define our campaign, we've been brilliant across this campaign and we're still in a great position and that has got to be the focus for us.
'We've said that in the group there. We've got to learn from tonight, the bits that we need to take and be better at, no doubt, short term and long term. But our focus has got to be on Tuesday and making sure that we get that right.'
The focus is now very much on Tuesday and, with Bosnia being very much a different level of opposition, Northern Ireland's approach will be very different in Zenica.
'You probably have to be flawless against a team like (Poland), and in the second half what pleased me was the opportunities we had going the other way,' said Oxtoby.
'We could have easily gone into our shell and not really expressed ourselves and we still did that. We take the positives and we've got to take those into Tuesday because it's a massive game for us.'