Northern Ireland 1 – 0 England

Wow.
I’ve just typed the scoreline I’ve dreamed about for years. The one dreams are made of. NORTHERN IRELAND 1 ENGLAND 0 (HEALY). But it’s not a dream, it’s for real. Northern Ireland’s greatest result ever (as far as I’m concerned). The highlight of my football supporting career. It beats that night in Wales, it beats the times Stute beat Linfield at home, it beats the time we stuffed the Glens, it even beats the 9th of November 2002 – 2-1 down to Linfield at Windsor when Snowy scores his best goal ever to level things in the 80th minute, before scoring the winner in the 93rd.
It’s half 3 here..too late to be writing a match report. My throat’s killing me. Let’s divide the match up into a few sections:
The first half:

From the kick off I thought it was just a matter of “when” England scored, and also “how many”, but after a while we started to play half decently. The kop got Rooney riled, he got booked, and Beckham had to try and calm him down, but the England captain only got sworn at for his troubles

I don’t remember us having too many chances in front of the railway stand. SWP looked threatening every time he got the ball on the right wing. Aaron Hughes had to make a great last ditch tackle to stop him one time. Michael Owen also had a lovely effort at an overhead kick, and it looked like it would go in but Maik Taylor basically laughed at him and caught the ball, never mind saved it.

The second half:

We got a free kick in a great position, and with everybody up for it, Gillespie hit it straight out. What a donkey. Maybe our best chance of the match…
Quinn had a great effort from long range that hit the side netting.

Healy put a ball through but the only contact was Jimmy Quinn’s knee with Robinson’s head.
The kop were pure cheeky by this stage: “Easy, easy” had been going the whole match. “Are you Scotland in disguise?” was fantastic. Then, with 69 minutes played, we sang “1-0, we’re gonna win 1-0”. I hardly dared sing it. But as you’ll have noticed from the last report, we were right on Saturday.
Then it came. I’ve seen it about 20 times by now. 73 minutes something on the clock. Robinson puts a poor clearance upfield. Davis gets it just inside their half. He runs forward. Healy’s just come back from offside. Davis delays and then lofts the ball through. Half the England defence is playing offside, the other half isn’t. The linesman waves play on. Healy controls the ball brilliantly in the air, and then fires a superb shot past Robinson. The net bulges. The kop roars. Norn Iron 1 England 0.
But at the time, I hadn’t even seen it once. When Healy hit it, I was sure Robinson was saving it. If it had been during the goal droubt, or even any other match, surely Robinson would have palmed it away and someone would have cleared. But THE! NET! BULGED! NO OFFSIDE!! It was for real! I always thought the kop worked at the highest volume possible, but it was as if somebody had cranked it up. Somebody let off a flare. BUCK DAFT!!!! (as people kept sending me text messages saying).
Here it is in photos:






Sproule debut:
Another big highlight of the match for me. And he would have scored if Feeney hadn’t been so selfish and passed to him with a few minutes remaining.


And another highlight was of course seeing Stute play at half time – it may have been only the under 12 girls, but me, DC John and Dean completely wrecked ourselves singing for them:


Reaction:
So England’s first defeat in a qualifier under Sven. David Beckham (their best player tonight and seems a nice guy – clapped us at the start AND the end) said the defeat “hurt more than any other”.
Lawrie:
“I said to them it was about belief to win – when they went out one or two did not believe but by half-time 11 believed it.
“We were magnificent in the second half and the best team won.”
Sanchez said the Group Six success surpassed his FA Cup heroics with Wimbledon and Wycombe Wanderers.
“This has got to top it – for a small nation in world footballing terms to beat a team of the calibre of England, and their best team”
“That is David Healy’s 11th goal in 17 internationals for me. He has quality and is Premiership class.
“The fans were also magnificent and we played with an extra man – they raised the team, they believed in the team and the team gave it back in bundles.
“We have to make sure that when the European qualifiers come we can get through to a major finals.”
Captain Aaron: said the attitude of the team proved decisive at Windsor Park.
“I can’t really sum up in words what this victory means to everyone”
“Right from the the start we set about England and showed we meant business and came away with an incredible win.
“We knew what we had to do to beat England and showed that belief can sometimes bridge a gap in talent.”
Northern Ireland: Taylor, Baird, Craigan, Hughes, Capaldi, Gillespie, Davis, Johnson, Elliott (Duff 90), Quinn (Feeney 79), Healy (Sproule 88)
Not Used: Ingham, Robinson, Jones, Brunt.
Booked: Johnson, Capaldi, Baird.
BBC: Northern Ireland have last laugh