Northern Ireland 1 Hungary 1
They may well have heard the noise on the Cave Hill. You can see it now that the Kop at Windsor Park is no more. But its spirit was alive and roaring on Monday night as Kyle Lafferty performed an act of international rescue on Northern Ireland.
With Michael O’Neill’s team looking to have cracked at just the moment when they needed to be whole, and for all the talk of history to look overblown as well as premature, Lafferty was there to stab home an injury-time equaliser that leaves Northern Ireland on the brink of reaching France next summer. They can still do it.
With the Irish down to 10 men after Chris Baird’s 82nd-minute dismissal, and already 1-0 down due to goalkeeper Michael McGovern’s 75th-minute error, the announcement came that there were five minutes of added time.
Northern Ireland rallied one last time. They won a corner taken by their formidable, relentless captain Steven Davis. But it was headed away by a Hungary defence seeking a sixth consecutive clean sheet.
It ran to substitute Niall McGinn, who had positioned himself at the back of the area. McGinn could have blasted his shot high into the night sky as so often happens in pressure situations but instead he kept his shot down.
It was bound for the bottom corner too, until Gabor Kiraly leapt to his right to make a great parry. But he could not hold onto the ball and it was about who reacted first. Lafferty had not had his best game and was booked early on, meaning he knew he will miss the next game – Greece at Windsor Park next month.
But his attacking instincts have brought the Fermanagh man six goals before last night in these qualifiers and now he belted in his seventh. The stadium, anxious and annoyed after a the Baird sending-off and aware that a 1-0 win for Hungary could change the entire nature of the group, erupted.
Lafferty had done it again and the place went wild. It was a staggering climax, one that will be recalled for years.
The repercussions of those last 15 minutes are that Northern Ireland need two points from Greece here and Finland away to reach the European championships finals for the first time, and that they must try to get those point without Lafferty, Baird and Conor McLaughlin against Greece.
That may not seem as enticing as the prospects at kick-off but it was certainly better than when experienced Turkish referee Cüneyt Çakir appeared to book Baird, then send him off for the same foul on Zsolt Kalmar.
Baird clattered Kalmar, and he may have left a foot in on another player in the same move. Even so, it was unusual to say the least.
The night – and the group – had changed seven minutes earlier when McGovern, of Hamilton Academicals, had produced one of those goalkeeping howlers that must haunt the men of his profession.
Having had next to nothing to do all evening, McGovern came for Balazs Dzsudzsak's fast free-kick at his near post. McGovern, preferred to the more experienced Roy Carroll in the last few matches by O'Neill, grasped the free-kick and seemed to have caught it.
However, a split second later he had dropped it and it fell straight to the Hungarian defender Richard Guzmics who could not miss from close-range. McGovern's head was in his hands and Windsor Park was stunned.
But O’Neill had spoken on Sunday of Northern Ireland’s players’ reaction to setbacks and they proved him right again.
Hungary had improved in the second half but their goal was against the run of play.
O'Neill had made one change from the 11 who won in the Faroes on Friday night. Corry Evans, brother of Jonny, replaced McGinn. Ostensibly this was a defensive move by the manager except that such was the green pressure, Evans was pushing forward like his team-mates.
The surprise at half-time was that there had been no home breakthrough. But then Kiraly had made only one save of note – from an Oliver Norwood free-kick – despite the Irish possession.
There were a couple of Chris Brunt free-kicks aimed at the head of Gareth McAuley but while they caused some panic among the visitors, there was no chance for McAuley to add to his recent strike rate.
But with Davis purposeful in central midfield, Stuart Dallas slippery and creative on the left and Norwood smart and sharp, the Irish pinged the ball around a Hungary side that is not too shabby.
Hungary stepped up – literally about 20 yards further forward – in the second half but they had only troubled McGovern once before his personal calamity. That, though, looked definitive but Lafferty’s goal was reward for admirable Irish football as well as resilience.
NORTHERN IRELAND (4-1-4-1): McGovern; McLaughlin, McAuley, J. Evans, Brunt; Baird; C Evans (McGinn 56 mins) Davis, Norwood (Magennis 75 mins), Dallas (Ferguson 84 mins); Lafferty
HUNGARY (4-4-1-1): Kiraly; Fiola, Guzmics, Kadar, Leandro; Dzsudzsak, Gera, Elek 5 (Nagy 22 mins) Nemeth (Vanczak 89 mins); Kalmar; Szalai (Priskin 68 mins).
Referee: Cuneyt Cakir (Turkey)
