Northern Ireland manager Tanya Oxtoby admits her side “caused problems for ourselves” in Friday’s 4-0 defeat by Poland in the Nations League.

Barcelona striker Ewa Pajor scored twice in the opening 10 minutes as Poland secured an immediate return to League A.

Pajor then provided assists for Paulina Tomasiak and Adriana Achcinska, which means Northern Ireland will now face off with Bosnia-Herzegovina on Tuesday for the promotion play-off spot.

“The plan wasn’t executed as we would have liked,” said Australian Oxtoby of Northern Ireland’s poor start.

“The spaces were there we wanted to exploit but we were sloppy with the ball.

“We caused problems for ourselves, we addressed that at half-time and changed our shape to try and help in that area.”

Oxtoby added that “it’s not one single thing” behind the performance and result, but the “players know we can be better”.

Despite the defeat, Northern Ireland’s hopes of winning promotion to League A for the first time are still in their hands.

Second place secures a play-off spot against a League A side, and Northern Ireland are currently three points ahead of Bosnia-Herzegovina.

Teams on level points are split by their head-to-head ranking, so even if NI fall to defeat in Zenica they could still hold onto second ahead of the Bosnians thanks to February’s dramatic 3-2 win in Larne.

“We were disappointed with the first half, that goes without saying,” added Oxtoby.

“We tweaked some things at half time and the second-half performance was better.

“We managed to get Abi (Sweetlove) and Aimee (Kerr) on the pitch for their senior debuts, so there’s some real positives but we’ve now got to focus on the Bosnia game.

“It’s a crucial one for us. The players know that we can be better and I’ve got full belief that we’ll go on Tuesday and put in a really good performance.”