O’Neill salutes his Stu beauties

MICHAEL O’NEILL claimed his players were “out on their feet” before they grabbed a dramatic injury-time win.

Stuart Dallas popped up in the second minute of injury time to keep Northern Ireland on the road to Russia next year.

The Leeds midfielder fired low into the net in Baku after the hosts squandered three good openings with Ramil Sheydaev and Afran Ismayilov guilty.

“It was fantastic a way to finish the game,” said O’Neill said. “We were out on our feet and looking to get away with a 0-0.

“Michael McGovern made a couple of saves for us and we felt we would get a chance. Jonny Evans did brilliantly, playing the pass for Stuart Dallas.

“I am delighted for Stuart as he covered a lot of ground and did everything we asked of him.”

Missing eight players from the squad they took to France for the Euros, and without injured Gareth McAuley for the final 65 minutes, O’Neill’s side struggled.

But Evans showed a cool head in the box and squared the ball to Dallas instead of rushing a shot himself.

Dallas steadied himself before firing into the corner for his first competitive international goal. It was only the second effort on target from O’Neill’s men and it sparked jubilant scenes among their 300 fans.

Dallas said: “I did not think Jonny Evans had seen me, but that is why he is playing at the highest level – his vision. The ball ran across me and I was tired so I just kept my head down and hit it.

“If I had hit it better the defender may have blocked it.”