Bristol City 2 – 1 Southampton
“Sproule collected the ball on the halfway line; ran, ran and ran some more before cutting inside and drilling beyond Kelvin Davies’ diving body with a sweet left-foot shot.”
http://www.bcfc.co.uk/page/MatchReport/0,,10327~37678,00.html
Northern Ireland put the nightmares of Latvia and Iceland behind them with a creditable draw in Sweden tonight, and are still not mathematically out of the running to qualify for EURO 2008. Sweden would have guaranteed qualification with a win, and we needed one to keep things in our own hands, but despite this there was a lack of urgency from both sides. The hosts took the lead on 15 minutes from a free kick, a disappointing goal to give away. However they didn’t push overly hard for a second, and NI seemed happy enough to go in at the break just one goal down. Things were much the same in the second half, but then on 72 minutes, following a long punt upfield, Laffs won it in the air, ran into the box and unleashed a wonderful curling shot into the far corner of the net. Even this didn’t overly spark us into action however and it finished 1-1. Our best other chances were a David Healy free kick well saved and a trademark Chris Brunt drive than just dipped too late.
Craigan, on his return, was reliable as he’s always been. McAuley did ok but wasn’t much use coming forward and went AWOL one time which nearly cost us dear. Ivan didn’t get much of a chance to show his pace. Went on a few runs down the flank, but was playing pretty deep and wasn’t given any balls over the top to run on to.
Great goal kid
Ref was shocking – Laffs was booked for heading a ball and will now miss Denmark.
First competitive start! A quiet one
So a better performance, maybe not enough urgency, but maybe the rot has been stopped. Still won’t be sending Nigel a Christmas Card though… (says the change in performance was purely due to the players’ attitude – nothing to do with him being forced by injuries to stop messing around with the defence?)
NORTHERN IRELAND: Taylor, McAuley, Hughes, Craigan, McCartney (Capaldi), Sproule, Clingan, Davis, Brunt, Healy, Lafferty
Not Used: Mannus, Webb, McCann, Jones, Robinson, Hamilton.
Taylor (Birmingham), Mannus (Linfield), McGovern (Celtic), Craigan (Motherwell), Capaldi (Cardiff City), McCartney (West Ham), Hughes (Fulham), Evans (Man Utd), McAuley (Leicester City), Gillespie (Sheffield United), Davis (Fulham), Clingan (Notts Forest), Brunt (West Brom), McCann (Barnsley), Robinson (Luton Town), Jones (Burnley), Healy (Fulham), Lafferty (Burnley), Sproule (Bristol City).
Glentoran striker Gary Hamilton is on standby, rather than in-form Andy Kirk. Gareth McAuley, who has been captaining Leicester of late, was originally on standby but now has been brought into the full squad. His original exclusion, leading to his outburst, was of course daft as we’re missing Baird and Nigel’s favourite player Michael Duff. Below are a few snaps of Big G scoring against Brunt-less Sheffield Wednesday on Saturday:
First of season
Hard
Gareth McAuley is the latest player who wants out – after being left out of the squad for Sweden, despite the fact that Baird is suspended and Duff is injured.
Big G – Frozen out
“I’ll see this campaign out and after that I’ll be thinking of the future,” said the Leicester City player. “If I’m going away for 10 days and I am not being involved it frustrates me and it knocks your confidence a bit.”
“It’s something I’m not very happy about but I’ve just got to take it on the chin,” added McAuley. “He’s cut the squad back and myself and a couple of other lads are disappointed. He just said to keep doing what you are doing at your club and you will get a chance. It’s very frustrating, especially after watching the performance against Latvia. He said he was going to make changes but I didn’t even make the bench for the second game (in Iceland). “It is very hard going away for 10 days, rushing back and having no preparation for club games, which is not the best for Leicester.”
