International friendly: Northern Ireland 0-1 Hungary
BROWN and Whyte were best for an off-colour Northern Ireland but unfortunately a red-faced Niall McGinn helped Hungary win - yet only because the visitors somehow held out in a frantic finale.
Roland Sallai punished McGinn's under-hit back-pass 10 minutes into the second period but the hosts will wonder how that remained the only goal of this friendly game as they bombarded the Kop end goal in the last 10 minutes of play.
Substitutes George Saville and Trai Hume both saw late headers saved by goalkeeper Denes Dibusz, while fellow replacements Shayne Lavery and Dion Charles had shots deflected and then saved in added time, before Lavery lashed the last chance wide.
In truth it was a largely disappointing display by the men in green, who looked lethargic and disjointed for much of this match, until they burst into belated life in that closing period.
Admittedly there were nine changes from the team that won 3-1 in Luxembourg on Friday night, including a full debut for Paddy Lane of Fleetwood Town. The only two to remain from that starting line-up were centre-half Craig Cathcart and centre-forward Josh Magennis, who opened the scoring on Friday night.
Bailey Peacock-Farrell returned between the sticks, becoming one of three goalkeepers on Burnley's books in international action on the same night, along with England's Nick Pope and Wayne Hennessey of Wales.
The home formation was either 3-4-3 or 5-2-3, depending on whether they were with or without the ball. It was more the latter than the former, with Lane being pushed back on the left flank and Paddy McNair not able to get forward much on the right, at least not at first.
Hungary were definitely 3-4-3, with Zsolt Nagy and Loic Nego well advanced in the wide positions, and Peacock-Farrell had to race out rapidly to beat Nego to a ball over the top from Andras Schafer.
There was the commentators' nightmare of the three furthest forward for the visitors being Szoboszlai, Sallai, and Szalai, but they didn't see much possession, despite the skipper Szalai looking and acting like a Poundland Zlatan.
His counterpart as captain, Steven Davis, made a terrific start to the game, always seeming to be in the right place to pick up possession and move it on to a better-placed team-mate.
It was the width of a post away from being a brilliant beginning for the Rangers midfielder, when he seized on a poor back-pass by Nagy and bent a shot with the outside of his right boot, an effort that clipped the far upright and went wide.
The men in green's wide attackers, Gavin Whyte and Niall McGinn, were looking lively, and combined on several occasions, notably when McGinn drifted in from the left and picked out his team-mate, who cut quickly through the Hungarian rearguard but then over-ran the ball.
The highly-rated Dominic Szoboszlai of RB Leipzig had a good opportunity when Cathcart was harshly booked for a firm challenge on Nego, but the 21-year-old fired the free-kick straight into the defensive wall.
Davis slid a pass for Magennis to chase into the box, but Willi Orban's well-timed tackle began a counter-attack which ended with Sallai shooting from the edge of the opposite penalty area - but only weakly, and straight at Peacock-Farrell.
Home boss Ian Baraclough twisted first, replacing Magennis with Dion Charles, and he almost made an instant impact. Chasing onto a ball forward in the first minute of the second half, the Bolton Wanderer went down under pressure from Adam Lang, but referee Rob Harvey ignored the penalty claims, probably correctly.
Ciaron Brown exhibited a form of nominative determinism, at least in terms of his initials, twice making good contributions at centre-back early in the second half. First he tracked back and made a sliding block to cut out a Nego cross after a sloppy square pass in midfield by McNair. Then, after Szoboszlai won a soft free kick and delivered it from the right, the Oxford United man headed it confidently clear.
Unfortunately, 10 minutes into the second period McGinn's defensive blunder let in Sallai. The Dundee wideman covered a hopeful cross-field punt and tried to cushion it back to his keeper, but only presented it to the Freiburg forward, who nicked the ball past the advancing Peacock-Farrell and rolled it into the empty net.
Baraclough then made a double change midway through the second half, sending on midfielder Jordan Thompson and centre-forward Shayne Lavery for Whyte and McGinn, but the hosts showed few signs of appearing more attacking.
Hungary soon replaced the rest of their front three too, followed by substituting a defender and two midfielders, but all those changes were not for the better, as the home side got on top.
First Thompson whipped over a cross which Saville headed powerfully - but right at Dibusz, who pushed the ball up before gratefully gathering it. The Hungary keeper then had to scramble to his left to push away a downward header from Hume, who met a cross from another former Linfield man, Lavery.
The Blackpool forward then saw a shot half-blocked and the ball fell to Charles, but he delayed a split-second too long before shooting and his effort was turned wide by the defiant Dibusz.
There was still time for another opportunity, but Lavery sliced his 20-yard shot wide, and Hungary recorded their fifth win in seven meetings with Northern Ireland.
McGinn had scored in NI's only victory, an away win in Budapest in September 2014 which sparked the run to reach Euro 2016, but his contribution this time was negative, despite the promising conclusion to this encounter.
Northern Ireland (5-2-3): Peacock-Farrell; McNair, Ballard (Hume, 82), Cathcart, Brown, Lane (Dallas, 61); Davis (capt.) (Saville, 61), A McCann; Whyte (Thompson, 68), Magennis (Charles, h-t), McGinn (Lavery, 68).
Hungary: Dibusz; Orban, Lang (Kecskes, 82), Fiola; Nego (Bolla, 81), Styles (Vecsei, 82), Schafer, Z Nagy; Sallai (Gazdag, 72), Szallai (capt.) (Adam, 73), Szoboszlai (A Nagy, 65).
Referee: Rob Harvey (Republic of Ireland).
