Sixteen years after his international debut, Magennis is the longest-serving player in O’Neill’s squad and the sole survivor from Northern Ireland’s only previous win in Budapest.
An unused substitute in the 2-1 victory that kicked off their successful Euro 2016 qualifying campaign, Magennis believes the squad’s changing profile over the years has set them up well to target all three points.
“I’ve played in a lot of Northern Ireland teams where we’ve been very reactive to the opposition, trying to nullify them, but this is the type of group where we’re able to overpower and overrun games and they’ll have to think about us,” he said.
Coming into this campaign, Northern Ireland’s ability to grind out results beyond Windsor Park had been called into question.
Wins away to Georgia and Ukraine already in this campaign have changed that perception, and Magennis feels Hungary – one point behind Northern Ireland – will know the visitors are not to be underestimated.
“If they don’t show us the respect that we deserve, then it’ll be at their own peril, and they’ll learn the hard way come 90 minutes when we take the three points,” added the Stevenage striker.
“If they don’t account for our running power, our physicality, our set-pieces, all that type of stuff, then that’s down to them.
“We only play the team that’s in front of us, but we’ll go into it fully [prepared].”
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