Eastern Region, representing Northern Ireland in the 2026/27 competition, secured a draw with Slovakia following an incident-packed encounter at Stadiumi Luz i Vogël in Kavaje Municipality.
The match featured significant physicality as both sides huffed and puffed before Northern Ireland struck first on the twenty-fifth minute.
Manager McConkey introduced five changes to the starting line-up for the second leg of the four-team Group 6 mini tournament staged in Albania over the past week.
Earlier today, Northern Ireland's junior international team suffered a narrow defeat at the hands of their Italian counterparts in another UEFA Regions' Cup intermediate round tie.
Italy took the lead through Filippo Comino in the second minute after defender Leon Lavery missed an early opportunity to open the scoring.
Lavery created further chances while substitute Curtis Brown converted a Donnelly free-kick but his effort was cleared for a corner.
Albania's Romeo Pillati breached the Northern Ireland defence before being flagged for offside by the referee.
Despite going down to ten men in the second game, Eastern Region created several good chances and played well throughout the contest.
The Irish Football Association published reports on all three matches including the narrow defeat by Italy earlier this week.
Both sides exhausted themselves physically before Northern Ireland made the breakthrough on the twenty-fifth minute of the draw with Slovakia.
The mini tournament has seen Eastern Region represent Northern Ireland following their victory over the Western Region in a two-legged play-off earlier this year.