Northern Ireland secured second place in Group B3 of the Women’s European Qualifiers after back-to-back 2-0 wins over Malta and Bosnia and Herzegovina last week with Casey Howe playing a key role.

The Maguiresbridge native appeared in both games and grabbed herself an assist as Tanya Oxtoby’s side now advanced through to the play-off rounds as 28 teams battle for the final seven places at the 2025 Euro competition in Switzerland.

They will face Croatia after Friday’s draw, with the winners of the two-legged tie then going on to face either Norway or Albania.

Howe started both final group games as she helped open the scoring at Windsor Park by putting the ball on a plate for Keri Halliday.

A second goal from Lauren Wade wrapped up the win meaning Northern Ireland were seeded for the draw.

“It was great, it was something I set myself out for at the start of the season, to get in and around the Northern Ireland fold and I was lucky enough to do that,” Howe said.

“It was then about building on from the minutes I got in the previous camps and I was delighted then to get two starts and to add an assist to that was great.

"I think we were all confident in our playing strategies and our previous performances.

"We had really built on the two Portugal games, although they were really difficult, we had massively improved from the first to the second game against Portugal.

"I think we were confident going into the two games, but we had to get the job done, we couldn’t slack off.”

Northern Ireland began their qualifying campaign with a 0-0 draw at home to Malta before bouncing back with a 3-1 away to Bosnia and Herzegovina at the beginning of April.

They then suffered a 4-0 and 2-1 defeat to group winners Portugal before July’s wins in the first two reverse fixtures.

“Portugal was always going to be a tough game when you see the calibre of players they have playing for them, so, that was always going to be the toughest of the games,” added Howe.

“We had then set about picking up results against Bosnia and Malta to finish in second place in the group and we’ve, ultimately, achieved that.”

Howe and her teammates will now have to wait until October before taking on the Croatians.

Nenad Gračan’s team finished third in a group with Wales, Ukraine and Kosovo, winning three of their six games in B4.

“I think we were prepared to take anyone,” said Howe when asked about last Friday’s draw.

“When you’re playing a play-off, it's never gonna be easy and I think we were just happy to take whichever game came to us.

"There was no looking forward to a certain team, it was, ‘We’ll take whoever we get'. We need to now focus on Croatia and prepare the way we have done for previous games.”

Howe has been in fine form for her club Athlone Town as they sit top of the SSE Airtricity League Premier Division with nine wins from 11 games.

The forward has netted five times in those 11 matches and says she’s enjoying her football under manager Ciarán Kilduff.

“I’ve loved playing club football. Ciarán’s been a great manager for me personally, just allowing me to go to play and express myself,” she said, speaking on club football this year.

“I think that is showing on the pitch with my performances, so I just hope we can continue that from now till the end of the season and hopefully pick up some trophies.”