Michael O'Neill rues poor Northern Ireland defending in damaging loss in Slovenia

Michael O'Neill admitted poor defending cost Northern Ireland dear in a damaging 4-2 defeat to Slovenia but it was another game of fine margins in Ljubljana.

Northern Ireland ended the night having created more chances than their hosts but on the wrong end of the scoreline as they struggled to contain Slovenia's strike pairing of Benjamin Sesko and Andraz Sporar.

Isaac Price's first international goal had cancelled out Sporar's third-minute strike but all too quickly Northern Ireland were behind again when Petar Stojanovic's strike deflected off Jonny Evans in the 17th minute, with Sesko giving Slovenia breathing space before the break.

Although Evans got O'Neill's side back into it in the 53rd minute, almost immediately Sporar settled it to deliver what is surely a fatal blow to Northern Ireland's hopes of progressing from Group H as they lost for a fourth straight match.

But although they conceded four, O'Neill could be happy with the attacking intent showed by his side, with Conor McMenamin carrying the threat after getting the nod on the right wing.

"It was a game full of incident clearly, six goals," O'Neill said. "I thought we played very well in the game. We defended poorly at times, we struggled to deal with Sesko and Sporar who we knew would be the biggest threat and they proved to be that.

"But we did a lot of good things in the game. Some of the attacking play was very very good, we created a lot of chances and that was the best attacking play we've had in the campaign so far. Playing with two wingers helped us with the chances we created.

"The most disappointing thing in the game is how we managed the period in the game from 1-1 to 2-1, I think that was the period where we needed to be stable and we weren't. Also