Northern Ireland 0 – 1 Bulgaria

[Welcome to the new home for AWS. The archives will be added in the next week or so.]

The none-too-moutherwatering prospect of a home friendly with Bulgaria turned out to be a none-too exciting game. Craigan, only relieved of Motherwell duty at the last minute (yet another match called off – they’re now relaying the pitch), Steve Davis and Chris Baird all started on the bench, with Damien Johnston playing his first international in yonks and Gareth McAuley appearing to be now firmly established in the right back position.

The first half was decent enough. Bulgaria didn’t look any great shakes, although they went close to scoring a few times, and Maik pulled off a particularly good save in front of the Kop. But we weren’t very threatening at the other end, and the Scottish referee was proving to be a complete tube (he was clearly from Plains or somewhere!).

With 38 minutes gone, after denying us yet another free kick, the Bulgarians broke, Petrov proved too fast for Keith Gillespie, and he lifted the ball over Maik Taylor and into the net. I see on the news there it’s gone down as a Jonny Evans og.

In the second half, any real good play from NI fizzled out. Davis had come on at half time along with Baird & Craigan, but although trying to play a bit of football, there were signs why a player attracting interest from Man Utd a few seasons ago has ended up being farmed out on loan to the SPL. Maybe the goal was playing on his mind or something, but Keith seemed particularly ineffective. But there was no sign of Ivan Sproule.

It looked like we were only going to be able to score from a set piece, but again these turned out to be pretty ineffective. Brunt certainly didn’t look like a £3 Million pound man. Paterson came on, and looked eager, but didn’t do much. Thompson was worse. Then Mannus joined him for Taylor, and was rounded within seconds, but we survived, and he did well after that. He must be gutted that Worthless is continuing his quest to go after players who don’t want to play for us by trying to get Royston back in the fold.

And that was about it. Both teams slagged off the pitch, but Berbatov was probably just bitter that he’s joined Christiano Ronaldo on the list of Premiership superstars who’ve failed to find the net at Windsor Park. In truth, it probably wasn’t as bad as I’ve let on, but still it’s not making the prospect of the next friendly against Georgia look any more appealing. And still nothing to disprove those block bookers who said they wouldn’t be renewing if Worthington was given the job.

NORTHEN IRELAND: Taylor (Mannus), McAuley, Evans (Craigan ht), Hughes, McCartney (Baird ht), Gillespie (Thompson 78), Johnson (Davis ht), Clingan, Brunt, Healy, Lafferty (Paterson 60)

Not Used: Webb, Robinson, Sproule