World Cup 2010 Qualifiers

Czech Republic, Poland, Slovakia, Slovenia, San Marino.
San Marino are the lowest ranked team in Europe. No pressure.
Fixtures yet to be sorted. Matches run from September 2008 to November 2009.
Only the top team in each group qualifies automatically. The best eight runners-up play off for four more places.

Spain 1 – 0 Northern Ireland

Northern Ireland were left to reflect on what might have been as their EURO 2008 qualifying campaign finally ran out of steam against Spain tonight. Despite having won 5 out of 6 home games after recovering from a nightmare start against Iceland, and earning credible draws away to Denmark and Sweden, our failure to pick up even a point in an away double header against Latvia and Iceland in September, left us having not only to beat Spain tonight, but to rely on Latvija turning over Sweden.
Worthington opted to let Warren Feeney retain his place in the side at the expense of Kyle Lafferty, however it was our defenders who were in the spotlight for most of the match. The first half saw us have only one shot at goal, and we survived a few scares at the other end, including Craigan ‘committing GBH’ (Magilton) in the penalty box, but at half time it was still 0-0 and the Lats had come from behind to be sitting at 1-1 against Spain.

One more for them, and one for us, and the dream would have been a reality. As the teams emerged for the second half, it transpired that Worthington had made a substitution that no-one could have expected – STEPHEN ROBINSON (“Who are ya?” – John O’Neill) for Ivan Sproule, who had had a decent first half. Not criticising, it was just…strange. The second half was still all Spain. Disaster struck 7 minutes into the half when a shot from outside the box hit Stephen Craigan on the head and deflected past the helpless Maik Taylor to give the hosts the lead. Still no NI resurgence. The ineffective, and possibly injured Brunt (has done nothing in the last two games at least to justify an automatic starting position I reckon) made way for Laffs. Even the chance of the hoped for resurgence was hindered by having Laffs out wide on the left and Feeney out on the right with Healy isolated up front. Spain had a few more chances they should have taken to make sure of the win, but we never looked like scoring one, never mind two.

The match may live on longer in the mind of Martin Paterson than for most, as the 20 year old Scunthorpe striker made his debut as a substitute for Warren Feeney.
But the game ended in defeat, and Sweden beat the Latvians 2-1 anyway.
Of all the ‘if onlys’, surely the biggest one involves the words ‘Lawrie’ and ‘Sanchez’. But still – our best crack at qualifying in a long time, and a very respectable 3rd place. Onwards and Upwards!
Northern Ireland: Taylor, McAuley, Craigan, Hughes, Baird, Sproule (Robinson ht), Clingan, Davis, Brunt (Laffs 55), Healy, Feeney (Paterson 80).
Subs: Mannus, Webb, Capaldi, Hamilton.

Northern Ireland 2 – Denmark 1

Northern Ireland go into their last EURO 2008 qualifier with the chance to go through following a superb 2-1 win over Denmark tonight.
Pre-game thoughts were occupied with questions over whether the match would actually go ahead, after torrential rain all day. At 6pm, the referee had declared the pitch unplayable, but the Windsor Park surface passed a pitch inspection 5 minutes before kick off, and the game kicked off. Still the weather question was the priority however, as the rain continued, the ball kept getting stuck, and there was clearly visible surface water on both ends of the pitch.

A harsh booking for his first foul means we’ll have to do without Keith in Spain
Such were the conditions that it was hard to really judge how individuals were playing in the first half, as the pitch was making even simple passes impossible at times. Those peering through the rain could probably just make out the one surprise in the starting line-up – McAuley at right back at the expense of Baird. The one thing that was certain was that our proliferation of corner kicks were being wasted by Brunt, who didn’t seem to deem it worth his while to beat the first man.
Half-time came and went, and just as we were getting used to the idea that the match might not actually be called off, a Danish Bendtner managed to poke in an opener for the visitors. Not greatly perturbed, Northern Ireland got back in it 10 minutes later as Young Feeney, even more enthusastic about playing for his country than most, headed in an equaliser. From a good Brunt delivery! From open play.

Then, right after, he volleyed the ball against the post from 40 yards. Healy fired a free kick wide before in the 80th minute he produced yet another amazing finish to fulfill the kop’s undaunted “We’re gonna win 2-1″ chant that had been going from when Denmark scored. From an amazing position, in the right of the box, he fired in an outstanding and audacious lob, similar to the one against Sweden but even harder to pull off.

And that was that. Healy became the leading EURO qualification goalscorer of all time, and all we had to do was hang on to another lead. Which we’ve had to do plenty of times from England on and never failed. Though even the most confident would have had a few heart flutters as Denmark hit the post from a free kick and the ball went right back across the middle of our box before hitting the foot of one of our defenders and rolling just past the post – for a corner.
And then, with Maik Taylor beaten, man of the match Sammy Clingan turned goalkeeper and stopped the ball on the line with his hand, but thankfully the referee didn’t see it and the dream goes on and on.

Now we just need to win in Spain on Wednesday and hope Latvija beat Sweden! Spain beat Sweden 3-0 tonight and the Latvians dispatched Liechers 4-1 so that means (a) Spain are through and have nothing to play for (except revenge…) and (b) Latvia should be full of beans, and indeed confidence.
As the man used to say: ONWARDS AND UPWARDS!!!!!!
ONE!! FINAL!! PUSH!!
NORTHERN IRELAND: Taylor, McAuley, Hughes, Craigan, Evans, Gillespie (Sproule 74), Clingan, Davis, Brunt, Healy, Feeney (Baird 84).
Not used: Mannus, Capaldi, Robinson, Paterson, Hamilton.
PS: The whole stadium thing. It will be just about impossible to recreate that atmosphere anywhere else. They really need to build the ground nice and tight with the fans right on top of the players – no big wide spaces!!

McCartney out – Evans in?

George McCartney will miss our final two qualifiers after doing his ankle in today. Jonny Evans would be the obvious choice to replace him, but maybe Nige will call up Alan Fettis or something…

Squad for Denmark and Sweden

Note that the Denmark game has an evening kick-off – 7:45pm
Jonny Evans, who probably shouldn’t have started the match but definitely should have been on the bench is left out altogether (relegated to U21s)!! Stephen Robinson stays in the squad while Grant McCann is left out. Andy Kirk, joint top scorer in league one, is left out. Fair enough, he’s never done much for NI – but surely more deserving of a place than Gary Hamilton?!!

Scunthorpe’s Martin Paterson gets a deserved call-up
Maik Taylor (Birmingham City), Alan Mannus (Linfield), Michael McGovern (Celtic); Stephen Craigan (Motherwell), Tony Capaldi (Cardiff City), George McCartney (West Ham), Aaron Hughes (Fulham), Gareth McAuley (Leicester City), Sean Webb (Ross County), Chris Baird (Fulham); Steven Davis (Fulham), Sammy Clingan (Nottingham Forest), Chris Brunt (West Bromwich Albion), Stephen Robinson (Luton Town), Keith Gillespie (Sheffield Utd), Ivan Sproule (Bristol City); David Healy (Fulham), Gary Hamilton (Glentoran), Warren Feeney (Cardiff City), Kyle Lafferty (Burnley), Martin Paterson (Scunthorpe United).
Related links: Jonny good enough for Fergie, but not for Nigel

McCartney screamer

His first ever club goal. The opener in a 1-1 draw with Bolton.

http://www.megavideo.com/?v=TOV4KT5S

McAuley scores v Chelsea – Healy on target

Gareth McAuley scored the opener for Leicester against Chelsea in the week in the league cup. His team led 3-2 with 16 minutes left but Chelsea went on to win 4-3.


David Healy got an assist in Fulham’s 3-1 win over Reading this afternoon, and then followed it up with his first goal since mid-August.