Ethan Galbraith has described Conor Bradley as a "major loss" for Northern Ireland, after the Liverpool defender picked up a booking which will rule him out of Monday's World Cup qualifier against Germany.
Bradley's 76th-minute yellow card for a challenge on Lukás Haraslín was the only sour note on an encouraging night for Northern Ireland -- as an excellent performance earned them three points that keep them firmly in the hunt in Group A.
Captain on the night, Bradley was the spearhead for the bulk of Northern Ireland's attacks, linking up time and again with Galbraith in what has quickly become a key partnership for Michael O'Neill's side.
Trai Hume took the headlines after scoring his first international goal but the Sunderland man described Liverpool's Bradley as "the best player on the pitch by a mile", and that absence against Germany is a huge blow.
"He almost makes the game easier for me," Galbraith said of Bradley. "He's a quality player and I love playing with him...You can see how big and how much of a quality player he is. So it's a major loss, but sometimes things like this happen in football.
"We just have to go out and try and do what we do."
From the very start of the match, Bradley and Galbraith set the tone for Northern Ireland as they looked to get on the front foot and impose themselves on Slovakia, with the pair combining in the move that led to Patrik Hrosovský's 18th-minute own goal.
"That's what we sort of set out to do," Galbraith added. "Play with intensity and sort of put them under the cosh, especially at home...
"I think it's such a young group, we've got a lot of legs in the team. So to play like that, I think we can all do it.
"And I think it maybe almost takes teams by surprise at times, because of how long we can play with that intensity."
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Although O'Neill had refused to call the Slovakia game a "must-win" ahead of kickoff, there was no doubting the importance of getting a result against a team that came into the match with two wins out of two after getting the better of Germany last month.
Galbraith said the players were well aware of the significance, but insisted this young squad was happy to deal with that sort of pressure.
"I think in the changing room, we're all winners," he said. "We do want to win games and go into the groups and try and get the major competitions. I think there was pressure, but I think we thrive on the pressure."
The victory sets up what promises to be a huge occasion against Germany on Monday, when O'Neill will be taking charge of Northern Ireland for his 100th match across two spells.
"I think we can take a lot of positives from the game out there," Galbraith said. "With our fans at home, I think [Monday] is a game that we can go into with full belief."