Sunday Mirror (Northern Ireland)
Delighted camp on way home
was his first ever competitive strike for his country.
The former Crusaders winger said: “I probably haven’t had a better night in football – it will take a hell of a lot to beat it.
“I’ve waited a long time to get my first competitive international goal and there’s probably no better way to get it than in the last minute.
“It could be the biggest goal I score given what it means for us in the group. Scoring for my country is something I have always dreamed about. I’ll cherish for the rest of my life.
“We had to dig deep – there’s no getting around that - and if I’m being honest, we probably didn’t deserve to win it.
“But when chances come along, you have to take them. It’s all about the result and we managed to get that.”
Boss Michael O’Neill admitted Northern Ireland, whose next game is a winnable one away to San Marino on September 1, were fortunate to leave Baku with three points.
He said: “I understand the frustration of Azerbaijan. It was an extremely tough game but we stayed in it, fought hard and got a lucky break to win. We’re grateful to get the result.
“Azerbaijan passed the ball a lot better than we did, although a lot of their possession was deep so they didn’t cause us that many problems.
“If it had finished 0-0, it wouldn’t have been a bad result, but I’m much happier that it finished 1-0. We took our chance and we’re delighted with the three points.”
Six games into the campaign, Northern Ireland have kept five clean sheets and conceded just two goals in a 2-0 loss to group favourites Germany in Hannover.
O’Neill said: “At the end of the day we have played six games and Germany are the only team to score against us. We’ve also scored 11 so we deserve to be where we are.”