Simone Magill already knows that a very special night awaits her.
When Northern Ireland head into battle against Croatia in the crucial second leg of their Women’s Euro 2025 Play-Off, Magill will walk out proudly at the front of the line for the first time as permanent captain of her country.
Whatever happens over the 90 minutes that will follow, a memory will be made both for Magill and her family, who will travel from Cookstown to share the moment with her.
She doesn’t want the significance of the occasion to stop there.
Magill and her team-mates can look back fondly on the night they secured qualification for the 2022 Finals in England by beating Ukraine at Seaview. A 1-0 win over Italy and a superb performance in a 2-2 draw with Austria were among other highlights at the Shore Road venue.
Now that Windsor Park has become the permanent home of the Northern Ireland women’s team under Tanya Oxtoby’s management, now is the time to write new stories to go alongside Greece 2015, Spain 2006, England 2005 and all the way back to Israel 1982 in the stadium’s storied history.
“We have had some very special memories at Seaview where we used to play and it’s about creating new memories at Windsor Park,” said Magill, who already had one special Windsor memory to cherish after scoring what was a hugely important goal in the Nations League Play-Off against Montenegro in February.
“It’s our home, it’s where we want to be playing and I think we are starting to slowly adapt to playing at Windsor.
“If we look at Friday night, it was a smaller pitch so we are looking forward to getting out onto a bigger pitch and trying to find the spaces to play in.
“We want to create really good memories at Windsor Park and hopefully we can do that by beating Croatia.”
The injury-time own goal scored by Izabela Lojna, who had earlier put Croatia 1-0 up from the penalty spot in Friday’s first leg, has put the tie in the balance ahead of the return meeting.
It is now all to play for, with Northern Ireland having a perceived advantage of having home advantage for the decisive game.
Oxtoby’s team have a great opportunity to reach the final Play-Off stage and then the motivation of leading Northern Ireland to a major tournament as captain – as well as a less memorable moment when she suffered a cruciate ligament injury during the opening game of the 2022 tournament against Norway – will kick in.
“Getting to our first major tournament and getting a taste of it – obviously mine was a real bittersweet moment with what happened with the injury, so naturally it’s a real driving force to get back,” said Magill.
“If we get the job done then we can start to look to the next task and yes, that is an ultimate driving force.
“That’s where we want to be, we want to be playing at that level and we have got great young kids coming through who are hungry, who want to have a taste for it as well.”
Although Magill was announced as successor to Marissa Callaghan last week, Laura Rafferty was afforded the honour of captaining the team on Friday on her 50th appearance, thus meaning Magill gets the job for the first time at Windsor.
“It was a really special moment when Tanya called me and something that will definitely live with me forever,” said Magill.
“It’s something that you dream of when you start playing all those years ago and I got the opportunity to captain Northern Ireland at all the underage levels, so to be told that I was going to be the senior captain, I probably don’t really have words to describe what it means to me.
“The walkout ahead of the game will be a real highlight for me and definitely the biggest honour of my career.
Joely Andrews has returned to the squad after missing Friday’s game through illness and with Rachel Dugdale an injury doubt, 18-year-old Linfield Ladies defender Abi Sweetlove has been promoted from the Under-19 squad that played Switzerland in two friendlies.