Ten-man Northern Ireland fall at home to Slovenia

Ten-man Northern Ireland fell to a narrow home defeat against Slovenia in a game that was certainly influenced - if not necessarily dominated - by a poor refereeing performance.

Romanian official Istvan Kovacs was at the centre of everything.

Giving a soft free-kick that led to the opening goal in the fifth minute, booking Shea Charles for his protests and then sowing a second yellow card to the young midfielder for a tackle in the second half.

He further felt the ire of the home support, who felt Northern Ireland failed to get a number of decisions their way.

But the hosts can feel unfortunate not to have grabbed at least a point out of this game, given they dominated possession and, in the second half in particular, had the better of the chances.

O’Neill made three changes to his starting line-up from the one that bat San Marino 3-0 comfortably at the same venue on Saturday – two of them enforced.

With Paddy McNair suspended and Daniel Ballard out with a thigh injury, the manager handed debuts to Kilmarnock midfielder Brad Lyons and Bolton Wanderers defender Eoin Toal, while Bailey Peacock-Farrell returned in goal as Conor Hazard dropped back to the bench.

The night got off to the worst possible start with the visitors going in front inside five minutes.

Jamal Lewis was harshly adjudged to have fouled Benjamin Sesko on the edge of the box, with Romanian Referee Istvan Kovacs not helping matters by taking an age to blow his whistle.

Shea Charles was booked for his protest and to add insult to injury, Panathanaikos Adam Cerin curled his 20-yard effort in off the right-hand post.

The hosts had their first real chance on 18 minutes when Jamal Lewis fired just wide from 15 yards after the Slovenian defence failed to deal with a Paul Smyth long throw into the box.

Slovenia then thought they had doubled their lead through Sesko shortly after the half hour following a catalogue of errors in the Northern Ireland defence.

After Trai Hume’s header wasn’t far enough out of the box, Toal couldn’t sort his feet out and although Sesko sidefooted home, his strike partner Andraz Sporar was offside when the ball came back in. Following a very quick VAR check, Romanian Referee Istvan Kovacs gave a free-kick to the hosts.

O’Neill made a change at the break, bringing in Conor Washington up front in place of Josh Magennis, but things took a turn for the worse two minutes before the hour mark when Northern Ireland were reduced to 10 men.

It was Shea Charles who was shown a second yellow card for a late tackle of Andraz Sporar. The young Southampton midfielder, who has been revelation since coming inti the squad had already been booked for his protest of the free-kick that led to the opening goal.

O’Neill had been preparing to bring on Conor McMenamin and Issac Price before the sending off, but opted to change that, with George Saville replacing Dale Taylor, Price coming on for Jordan Thompson and Dion Charles taking the place of Paul Smyth.

Northern Ireland's best piece of play – and their best chance of the match - arrived with 20 minutes to go, involving three of those substitutes.

Isaac Price raced down the right to play a one-two with Conor Washington before teeing up George Saville, but the midfielder's low shot is straight at Jan Oblak in the Slovenian goal.

Eight minutes from time, Saville then fired straight at Oblak after a good move involving Jamal Lewis, Dion Charles and Washington as the 10-man hosts still continued to push for an equaliser.

However, it just wouldn't come.

Given they were up against the joint Group H leaders heading into the match, Northern Ireland certainly gave as good as they got and can count themselves unlucky not to have taken something from the tie.

Attention now turns to the final two qualifiers next month against Finland away and Denmark back in Belfast.

MATCH STATS

Northern Ireland: Peacock-Farrell, Hume, Lewis, Toal, Evans (C), S Charles, Lyons (McMenamin 86), Thompson (Price 63), Taylor (Saville 63), Magennis (Washington H-T), Smyth (D Charles 63)

Subs not used: Hazard (GK), Southwood (GK), Forbes, Kennedy, Marshall, Lane, Spencer

Slovenia: Oblak (C), Karnicnik, Janza (Verbic 84), Blazic, Bijol, Cerin, Elsnik, Mlakar (Lovric 74), Sesko, Sporar (Kurtic 74), Stojanovic

Subs not used: Belec (GK), Turk (GK), Balkovec, Stankovic, Zajc, Vipotnik, Celar, Zahovic, Drkusic

Referee: Istvan Kovacs (Romania)