Isaac Price admitted the moment of Northern Ireland’s Nations League promotion was “bittersweet” after they squandered a 2-0 lead to draw their final group game 2-2 in Luxembourg, but he believes Monday’s experience will only help going forward.

Price, 21, scored his sixth Northern Ireland goal to give Michael O’Neill’s side the lead 19 minutes in and they appeared to be cruising when Conor Bradley added a second early in the second half.

But they squandered chances to extend their lead and were made to pay with two goals in three minutes from Seid Korac and Gerson Rodrigues drawing Luxembourg level with 15 minutes remaining.

It was job done in terms of the group as Northern Ireland finished two points ahead of Bulgaria in League C Group 3, but there was no celebratory mood given the result.

“It’s kind of bittersweet,” Price said. “We’ve come here to top the group and we’ve done it so everyone is really happy.

“We’ve had a good Nations League, we’ve built up as a group so I think overall the feeling is positive but we have to look back and stop this kind of (result) happening…

“We haven’t conceded many goals in this Nations League and this is kind of a learning curve, about when we go 2-0 up, how to handle a game and not have that quick goals one after the other. But we have a young team and I think we will all learn from it.

Price, who scored a hat-trick in last month’s 5-0 drubbing of Bulgaria, put Northern Ireland ahead with an instinctive finish when Shea Charles slotted in.

“There was no real thought to it,” said the Standard Liege forward. “Just try to hit the bottom corner and that’s what happened so, well, buzzing.”

Price and Northern Ireland will now look ahead to next month’s World Cup qualifying draw – which comes on December 13 – in confident mood after taking big steps forward since an otherwise disappointing Euro 2024 qualifying campaign ended with a 2-0 win over Denmark 12 months . then.

“I think we’ve had a really great year,” Price said. “We’ve had a lot of different faces, a lot of different teams and adjustments but I think we have so many good young players.

“We’ve got senior players leading the way for us and showing us what they’ve been through before and it always helps when you’ve got players who’ve been to the European Championships before and they’ve experienced it so we can only learn from that and I think that we have.”

Price came off in second-half stoppage time in Luxembourg to make way for Justin Devenny to make his debut.

The 21-year-old made his first Premier League appearance for Crystal Palace just over a week ago against Fulham, quickly followed by a late call-up to O’Neill’s squad, and it’s been a whirlwind for the Scottish-born midfielder.

“I’m very proud, you can’t beat that,” Devenny told the PA news agency. “This week has been very, very good. There are some great players in the squad. I just need to learn every day, learn the best and take that experience away.”

Given how quickly things have happened for Devenny over the past two weeks, he admitted it had been a struggle to take it all in.

“I try as hard as I can,” he said. “I feel like this is something I will look back on for the rest of my life. After the game for Palace I didn’t really know how to react, how to take it in, but I just have to be proud of those moments.”