Barcelona striker Ewa Pajor scored twice<\/a> in the opening 10 minutes as Poland secured an immediate return to League A. <\/p>\nPajor 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. <\/p>\n
“The plan wasn’t executed as we would have liked,” said Australian Oxtoby of Northern Ireland’s poor start. <\/p>\n
“The spaces were there we wanted to exploit but we were sloppy with the ball. <\/p>\n
“We caused problems for ourselves, we addressed that at half-time and changed our shape to try and help in that area.”<\/p>\n
Oxtoby added that “it’s not one single thing” behind the performance and result, but the “players know we can be better”.<\/p>\n
Despite the defeat, Northern Ireland’s hopes of winning promotion to League A for the first time are still in their hands. <\/p>\n
Second place secures a play-off spot against a League A side, and Northern Ireland are currently three points ahead of Bosnia-Herzegovina. <\/p>\n
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. <\/p>\n
“We were disappointed with the first half, that goes without saying,” added Oxtoby.<\/p>\n
“We tweaked some things at half time and the second-half performance was better. <\/p>\n
“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. <\/p>\n
“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.”<\/p>\n<\/div>\n
\n
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