But despite the result, more disappointing for the Northern Irish was Slovakia hammering San Marino 7-0 to go top of their World Cup qualifying group.
"You are always disappointed when you get beat. But when you analyse the group of players that we had out, it was good for me to have a look at them," said the Northern Ireland manager Nigel Worthington.
"Aand when you look at the clubs that their players are coming from; looking at everything realistically, you come away with a lot of pluses. There was a lot of good stuff."