Tanya Oxtoby believes heavy UEFA Nations League defeat to Republic of Ireland can act as 'learning experience' for Northern Ireland

Lucy Quinn and Heather Payne handed the visitors a 2-0 lead at the break before Kyra Carusa, Katie McCabe, Louise Quinn and Caitlin Hayes netted in a second-half rout which ensured the Republic finished League B, Group One as winners.

Glentoran striker Kerry Beattie added a late consolation goal for Northern Ireland, who will now face a February play-off in order to preserve their second-tier status after ending the campaign in third on seven points – one adrift of Hungary.

It wasn’t the Windsor homecoming that Oxtoby envisaged, but she believes her young squad will be able to take lessons from the fixture as they look to reach the ruthless Republic’s levels.

"When you make mistakes against a team like this with their qualities you get punished and that's the story of tonight,” she told the BBC. “I thought there were some really good patches for us and we tried to do the right things, but when you make mistakes at this level you get punished.

"I know the players are really disappointed, but it's a learning opportunity for us. They want to perform well. Look at this amazing crowd. We know where we want to get to and the Republic are probably two or three years ahead of us in terms of their development and where they are at.

"Our players want to be there so tonight's result is disappointing for them, but it's a learning experience for us and I have no doubt this group will take it and move forward in a positive way."

The Republic were particularly effective from set-pieces with Bristol City ace Megan Connolly providing three assists on an evening to remember for Eileen Gleeson’s outfit and Oxtoby admits that’s an area her side need to improve in.

"It was still positive at half-time,” she reflected. “The players were really keen to get back out there and we made some tweaks.

"I thought we started the second-half a little slow and we were on the back foot again. It was positive at half-time. I thought we had good shape and executed on things we'd asked them to do, but it was a sucker punch with the deflected first goal and we never really recovered before half-time so it's disappointing from that point of view.

"We spoke about it before the game that their conversion rate from set-pieces is immense and ours isn't great in terms of defending. We know that and we're working really hard to rectify that, but that's going to take some time for us. Credit to them - they've executed tonight."