By the time of the 1986 world cup final qualification campaign, Pat Jennings had retired from international football, gaining the record of earning 119 caps for his country. Their qualifying group consisted of England, Romania, Finland and Turkey. Their first match was away in Finland and they suffered a major blip, losing the game 1-0. All four of their next matches were played at Belfast and they claimed three victories from four matches, defeating Romania, Turkey and Finland, suffering defeat against England. They faced the daunting task of having to pick up points away from home in their final three matches, and two away draws against England and Turkey meant that victory in Bucharest would guarantee qualification. They enjoyed a fine 2-0 win away at Romania to qualify for the 1986 world cup finals. Their world cup campaign did not go according to plan, despite having a decent side including, Colin Clarke, Norman Whiteside, John McClelland and Jimmy Nicholl. They started off with a disappointing 1-1 draw against Algeria and then suffered two defeats against Spain and Brazil to be eliminated from the finals.
Northern Irelands Euro 88 qualification campaign proved to be a debacle as they were poor throughout in a section consisting of England, Yugoslavia and Turkey, their only win from the campaign was an encouraging 1-0 home win against a very weak Turkey side in Belfast. They most notably suffered a crushing 3-0 defeat in Sarajevo in April 1987 against Yugoslavia.
The Irish faced an even tougher section in qualifying for the 1990 world cup finals. Their group featured Spain, Republic of Ireland, Hungary and Malta. As expected they defeated Malta at home and away, however they were awful in the other qualifying matches, suffering five defeats and only gaining one draw, coming in Belfast against the Republic of Ireland, which in turn condemned Northern Ireland to finish fourth in the section.