BBC Sport NI’s Andy Gray

It has been 68 days since Tanya Oxtoby’s departure as Senior Women’s team manager, and Wednesday marks 35 days until the start of World Cup qualifying.

Yet Northern Ireland’s search for a permanent replacement for the Australian goes on.

Kris Lindsay is a highly-respected coach and well liked both within the Irish FA and across football in Northern Ireland, and it cannot be ruled out that he will turn out to be the long-term solution for the women’s team, and a successful one at that.

But this is not the first time the IFA have taken a protracted approach for the position.

When Kenny Shiels left his role in January 2023, it wasn’t until that August that Oxtoby was appointed.

In that time, Northern Ireland did not play in the February window, had Andy Waterworth in charge for a friendly with Wales, while Gail Redmond, along with Lindsay, was interim manager for June friendlies in Scotland and the Czech Republic.

Angela Platt, the director of women’s football at the IFA, said she wants a “robust process” for replacing Oxtoby, but the public nature of the application through a recruitment agency raises more questions than answers.

Having such an open process, instead of targeting a manager, suggests a lack of strategy and clarity going forward post-Oxtoby.

The IFA are determined to land the right person for the job, hence the drawn-out approach, but Northern Ireland did not take part in the December window after Oxtoby’s departure and enter a crucial campaign without a clear plan in place for moving forward.

Qualifying for the 2027 World Cup was always going to be a challenge, and unless Lindsay is the permanent answer, disruption caused by a lack of consistency across the campaign has the potential to do more harm than good to a young squad who are trying to improve to reach the next level.