Ivan’s had enough – Videos from Sat

http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport1/hi/football/internationals/7009963.stm
You can understand why he’s frustrated and it’s almost criminal the way he’s been overlooked, but taking a break for a year is probably not the way forward.
Grant McCann scores 2 great free kicks:



Brunt’s first goal for WBA:

Shiels scores 87th minute winner in Hibs’ 3-2 win over Celtic:


Or http://news.bbc.co.uk//media_acl/avdb/sport/spl/video/121000/bb/121326_16×9_bb.asx

James Quinn, we salute you

James Quinn has decided to retire from football rather than keep going but not play for his country. His dream of cheering us on to qualification doesn’t look to secure following the last 5 days (I didn’t have time to post this before the matches), but he’s still an absolute legend.

“If I can’t play for Northern Ireland then I would rather quit football and become a fan and cheer the lads on to qualification. I’ve played 50 times for my country and that is an achievement which fills me with pride.”

“Nigel phoned me when he took over and told me if I was playing regularly then there was still a role for me with Northern Ireland. But in my heart of hearts I knew playing for Northampton in League One wasn’t good enough to earn me a place in the international team.

“I still had a year left on my contract but I came to an agreement with my club and I feel the time is right to begin a new chapter in my life. There was the option of continuing to play for a few more years and drop down through the leagues but for me playing for Northern Ireland was the ultimate and I don’t want to continue playing knowing I will never pull on the green jersey again.

“I have had a very enjoyable career and the biggest highlights have come when representing my country and I will always be thankful for the opportunity of playing for Northern Ireland. It was something I took tremendous pride in and I now look forward to cheering the lads on to the European Championship finals.”






Take it easy big lad.

Iceland 2 – 1 Northern Ireland

Northern Ireland’s Euro 2008 qualifying bid, fatally wounded following Saturday’s defeat to Latvia, was put out of its misery in Iceland last night. Technically we can still qualify, however as Nigel has firmly pressed the self-destruct button, it’s never going to happen.
Following the shamblés that was Latvia, Nige stubbornly refused to bring back Stephen Craigan, and kept the same defence that was all at sea at Latvia. Elliott and Laffs were replaced by Brunt and Feeney. We conceded an early goal (again down the left flank George), the new look defence clearly hadn’t been informed that they were meant to mark people. For NI, Sammy Clingan curled an effort just wide, before Evans missed an empty net. We were playing a lot better than on Saturday (not that that would have been hard), but couldn’t get an equaliser before half-time.
In the second half, Chris Brunt hit the bar from 40 yards, before Healy won and converted a penalty on 71 minutes. However this didn’t prove the catalyst for a forward surge to try and keep the qualifying dream alive. Nige rigidly stuck with 4-4-2, bringing on a midfielder (Grant McCann) and then Steve Jones (a slower, ginger version of Ivan Sproule) to play on the left wing! With not enough urgency shown going forward, a second own goal in 5 days, this time from Keith Gillespie in the 89th minute, handed Iceland the win.
I don’t have the energy to rant about Worthless changing a winning team, dropping key players, playing Duff ones, and completely messing up team morale, not least by the recall of a player whose absence happened to coincide with one of our best ever periods. If you want to get laid into him, may I direct you to ILF. AWS of course cannot condone players punching other players, but the fact is that Keith Gillespie did what many aggrieved Norn Iron fans wanted to do during today’s ‘altercation’.
A few quotes that sum it up:
On Worthington:
“Nigel Worthington plays Names, not players” – johnnylfc (ILF)
On McCartney:
“He was responsible for the goal against Liechtenstein. He didn’t make a challenge for the goal in Latvia and he was nowhere to be seen when both those goals tonight came from his flank. He is a ponce, a poseur and a charlatan.” – Nightmare (ILF)
On Northern Ireland:
“I thought the team had got past the stage of struggling in Iceland away.” – Lawrie Sanchez.
NORTHERN IRELAND: Taylor, Evans, Duff, Baird (c), McCartney, Gillespie, Clingan, Davis (McCann 78), Brunt (Jones 82), Healy, Feeney.
Not Used: Mannus, Craigan (why oh why?), Elliott, Sproule (why oh why?), Lafferty.

Latvia 1 – 0 Northern Ireland

It was back to the bad old days for Northern Ireland on Saturday as Nigel Worthington failed his first real test as Northern Ireland manager and his team crashed to a 1-0 defeat away to Latvia, which has severely dented our chances of qualifying for EURO 2008.
Inexplicably, Worthless dropped Craigan (after starting the last 22 matches or something) for Michael Duff (leaving us with a centre back at right back and two right backs at centre back), however our main problem was just trying to punt the ball upfield for 90 minutes rather than try and play it along the ground. Healy was starved of service, but still got a few shots in, Lafferty also came close and Evans had a header straight at the keeper well saved in the closing moments. Even with all the hoofing, Latvia were so bad that we were still the better team, but an own goal by captain Chris Barid on 55 minutes handed them all 3 crucial points. The ball was played in and Baird, knowing there was a striker right behind him, tried to put the ball out for a corner but deflected it into his own net.
Oh, and the ref let them get away with murder but that doesn’t excuse the performance.
The only good thing was that Spain only drew 1-1 with Iceland. But then, we’ve got Iceland on Wednesday…
Sweden also drew with Denmark, leaving us still 2nd in the group, equal on points with Spain and 3 behind Sweden, all 3 having played 8 games.

Watch Elliott’s goal

(And quickly before YouTube take it down, as they’ve started doing to any of their interesting clips)

Watch Elliott’s goal

(And quickly before YouTube take it down, as they’ve started doing to any of their interesting clips)