Northern Ireland 4-0 Malta: McArdle's tenure starts with crucial win to end winless run
It was the perfect start to the game for Northern Ireland, who opened the scoring through their first chance of the game in the fifth minute when Halliday's close-range shot took a deflection and found the bottom corner.Megan Bell's corner was then palmed to safety by Giulia D'Antuono, who was the much busier keeper in Lurgan.Halliday turned provider in the 18th minute when her cross was headed home by Andrews to double Northern Ireland's advantage.Malta attempted to halve the home side's lead through Maria Farrugia's shot, but Rebecca Holloway blocked the effort. As the half-time whistle approached, Ellie Mason and Lauren Wade sent efforts narrowly off target. Northern Ireland started the second half with similar intent, with Halliday netting her second of the evening on 52 minutes when D'Antuono was unable to keep her low strike from finding the bottom corner.Jackie Burns had a quiet evening but made a huge save to palm Haley Bugeja's on-target shot on to the woodwork.However, NI didn't let that chance impact their momentum with Megan Bell's well-timed pass finding Maxwell, who lobbed the busy Malta stopper to score on the hour mark.The closing stages of the match were much quieter as the rain started to pour down at Mourneview.McArdle made multiple changes in the final 15 minutes, including Cora Chambers coming on for her international debut, but none of his introductions could add a fifth.
