Halliday's Heroics Spark New Hope for Northern Ireland in 2026

Northern Ireland's Keri Halliday scores two goals and provides an assist in a 4-0 win over Malta, sparking hopes for a new chapter in the team's World Cup campaign.

Northern Ireland End Goal Drought Prior to their recent World Cup qualifier against Malta, Northern Ireland had not scored a flurry of goals in their past six matches. However, during Michael McArdle's first game in charge, they looked confident and netted four times in a match for the first time since 2023. McArdle handed Keri Halliday a rare start, and the winger netted her first two international goals and registered an assist during the 4-0 win. ## Halliday's Impressive Performance The 21-year-old impressed during her time at Linfield with 53 goals in 85 appearances before making the move to Scotland, and is currently on loan from Hearts to Motherwell. Halliday told the press, 'It means a lot with my family there. Dad did say it was coming and he was right.' She added, 'Michael [McArdle] is a lovely man, he's had all faith and confidence in us to go out and get points from these games. He's given us freedom and I think you can see that we're playing with smiles on our faces and playing with energy, stress-free and you can see that in the scoreline. I'm loving playing at the minute.' ## McArdle's Focus on Younger Players Developing a more attack-minded side has clearly been the early priority for McArdle since being appointed in March, with a focus on younger players evident too. Five of the starting XI were under 25, and Linfield's Cora Chambers also came off the bench to make her senior debut. With captain Simone Magill away from the side after announcing her pregnancy in November, Northern Ireland have missed her experience, leadership, and goals but after being handed the armband by McArdle, Rebecca McKenna led by example from defence and also helped push the side into the final third. ## Halliday's Trust in McArdle's Plan Halliday added that the side need to use McArdle's trust to demonstrate their abilities as Northern Ireland aim to secure a World Cup play-off. 'It's great that he's trusting us to play and come on,' Halliday continued. 'He's trusting us for a reason and we need to back ourselves on the pitch and do what we do week in week out with our clubs. We hadn't scored yet on the campaign so to come out and score four is something we wanted to do and hopefully keep that up for the away game.' ## Maxwell Praises Halliday's Quality Danielle Maxwell also netted during the convincing victory when she lobbed over stopper Giulia D'Antuono. The Burnley midfielder believes that this is only the start of Halliday's goalscoring career. Maxwell described Halliday as 'outstanding,' saying, 'She always is. She's young but she's really good quality on the ball and that's what she can bring when she plays. It's only going to push her forward now and there's plenty more to come from her.' ## McArdle Impressed with Halliday's Performance McArdle was also impressed by Halliday's performance, saying, 'She lit the place up tonight which was exciting to see.' Now, the Scot will be hoping for a similar showing away to Malta in their second must-win match of the qualifying campaign to keep their World Cup dreams alive.