Austria build up

Stuart Olyott:

“[Getting a last minute equaliser against Austria at Windsor] was a wonderful moment for me and at the time was the best moment of my career, but this World Cup campaign has been so amazing there have been others that have matched it and overtaken it since”
“Beating England in front of our own fans was magical. It really doesn’t get any better than that. What a night that was not just because of the result but also because of how much joy it brought to the country.
“A few days before that I scored a free-kick in our 2-0 win over Azerbaijan. That goal meant the world to me because it helped us secure our first victory at Windsor in four years. It really has been an incredible set of matches – even on Saturday when we lost to Wales, it was a cracking contest. I won’t ever forget this campaign. It will be something to tell the grandchildren about.
“I just hope that there is one more happy memory to come from the match with Austria on Wednesday night. The first match in Windsor was tight and I expect this game to be the same. We have a great incentive though because a win can take us third and Northern Ireland haven’t been in that position for a while.”
“It was a very disappointing result for us because after pulling back from 2-0 down to make it 2-2, it looked as if only one team would go on to win it and they weren’t wearing red,” said 27-year-old Elliott, who has won 31 caps.
“We created enough chances and had some decent penalty claims but in the closing stages when we were desperate to level the match again, things didn’t break for us.
“On a personal note I didn’t play well and am determined to make up for that against Austria. It would be lovely to finish this group on a high.”
Healy:

Healy’s wonder goal against Austria at home
“There is no point sitting back and being defensive and hoping to nick a goal on the break. We have to go all out for the victory because that would secure third place which would be fantastic. “It would be the first time we had finished that high for a decade and would be a real boost going into the European Championship campaign.”
“I think Lawrie has done a fantastic job since coming in. We are scoring a lot more goals now and in terms of entertainment I know the fans have loved this World Cup campaign.
“If we could cut out the silly errors, not just defensively but throughout the team, we wouldn’t concede as many goals and would end up winning more matches.”
Gillespie
“I definitely think they are beatable. I don’t doubt that. In the last game we played well, but gave away silly goals. If we can cut out those lapses of concentration we have a good chance of beating them in Vienna.”
Ivan on the campaign so far:

Ivan Sproule (left) at the Riverside Stadium last week
“It was a fantastic honour for myself to come into the squad for the Azerbaijan game and then the England game, where I got my first cap,” he says. “I was expecting to maybe be put on standby for Wales and Austria, but I was called into the full squad. It’s always good to come and represent your country, it’s something you and your family can be very proud of.
“A lot of fans and supporters from down around Castlederg where I come from, follow the team all over, there’s a few of them in Austria too, so this is a fantastic experience for me. I know the section’s coming to a close now and we’re not going to qualify but the next championship is coming up and if I can keep my club form going well hopefully I’ll be back.”
Reflecting on yesterday’s training session, Ivan says: “We trained a wee bit longer than we usually do, the boys were really enjoying it. I think it’s showing in the way the games are going at the moment, that everyone enjoys being together. Training was good and fun yesterday.
“Lawrie mentioned to us that we could still finish third, so we know that there is all to play for. The way the group has gone, there’s been some points dropped along the way and if we’d got them we could have been in with a shout of qualifying. That’s the realistic place we could have been in when we see how well we’ve done now against some of the better sides.
“It gives you something to play for and it’s always better for seeding in the next championships.”
Ivan says, with the profile of Northern Irish football raised, he often gets asked about his international team mates when he is back with his club in Scotland. He reveals: “Managers are always asking about certain players and who is playing well. Everyone was shocked by the two results we got in a row against Azerbaijan and England, and with the Wales game on Saturday they can see we are no pushovers.
“It would be fantastic to come third in the group after tomorrow night’s match. The profile of the players and the coaching staff would get a great lift. But it won’t be easy.
“Our last game against Austria was a three-three draw and England on Saturday, although they had a man sent off, they only managed to beat them one-nil on their home patch at Old Trafford, so they are no pushovers. They are all world class players and we know they’ll be looking to finish their campaign on a high, like we want to finish our campaign on a high.”

Articles

I’ve only had time to skim it, but this looks like a good article from The Scotsman
And from the Guardian: Wales trundled into Belfast on Thursday on the back of four straight defeats, four games without a goal and with the whiff of acrimony in the air after Ben Thatcher’s exclusion from the squad. Add no Craig Bellamy, no Danny Gabbidon, fresh criticism from Neville Southall regarding John Toshack’s management style and, no matter how many platitudes Ryan Giggs offered, Wales look like a set-up expecting to lose this afternoon.
“We are desperate for a win,” said Giggs, the Wales captain since Gary Speed’s retirement. The emphasis was on desperate.

Articles

I’ve only had time to skim it, but this looks like a good article from The Scotsman
And from the Guardian: Wales trundled into Belfast on Thursday on the back of four straight defeats, four games without a goal and with the whiff of acrimony in the air after Ben Thatcher’s exclusion from the squad. Add no Craig Bellamy, no Danny Gabbidon, fresh criticism from Neville Southall regarding John Toshack’s management style and, no matter how many platitudes Ryan Giggs offered, Wales look like a set-up expecting to lose this afternoon.
“We are desperate for a win,” said Giggs, the Wales captain since Gary Speed’s retirement. The emphasis was on desperate.

Wales tickets available to buy

http://www.irishfa.com/index/articles.php?id=1689
“THERE WILL BE A LIMITED NUMBER OF TICKETS AVAILABLE IN THE RAILWAY STAND FOR THIS MATCH.
THESE TICKETS WILL GO ON SALE ON WEDNESDAY 28TH SEPTEMBER AT 9.30am”

Not the Railway Stand…

Wales game 2pm

Both Northern Ireland and England have agreed to change their matches on the 8th of October so the BBC can show both games in full. England (“Can we play you every week?”) play Austria at Old Trafford at 4pm.

England 4 Northern Ireland 0

I’m totally wrecked but I thought I’d throw together a match report while events are still fresh in my memory.
A superb battling performance from Northern Ireland, every man a hero. We played some lovely football, survived some scares (Rooney hit the post) and Maik Taylor pulled off some amazing saves (the best from a Beckham free kick) but we kept it goalless.
However, that’s only the story of the first half. As soon as the second half started we capitulated, and all our hard work was undone in a matter of minutes.
Let’s reflect on the first half first though. 4-5-1 as expected. The reports were true that Doherty was in instead of Davis. Thankfully Andrew Smith wasn’t on the bench. The game kicked off and England just flew at us. The back 4 were superb. Howlin’ Mad Murdock – what a hero! Stopping everything. Baird looked far, far sharper than a season of reserve team football would suggest. Hughes and Capaldi, doing well. Owen had a one on one with Maik early on, but our number 1 effortlessly, almost scoffingly, saved the day. Rooney headed onto the post – and from behind the net there was a delay as we wondered whether the ball would bounce in or out – and then it looked like Baird was about to smash it into his own net, but he cleared it for a corner.
Going forward, well, not a lot happening and we didn’t have a shot on target in the half. However we were playing well and played some great passing, possession football. Whitley was brilliant. Gillespie was TRYING, and winning header after header against Ashley Cole from Maik’s goal kicks. Healy did well as the lone striker and Elliott bombed up as often as he could and worked hard. It was all going so well. “It’s just like watching Brazil” all six and a half thousand of us sung during a particularly good period just before half time, and it was.
When the first 45 were up the big scoreboards read ‘England 0 Northern Ireland 0′ and we had visions of it staying like that for the whole match, maybe us even nicking a winner. Lawrie had obviously told his players before the game that they would come at us like nothing normal in the first 20 minutes or so, and we had responded excellently. However, either he didn’t tell them this again at half time, or they promptly forgot. Just minutes into the half, we had just got away with some suicidal defending before Tony Capaldi passed the ball to Joe Cole on the edge of the box. Bang. 1-0. Just like that. “Went down” doesn’t even begin to describe what happened to our players’ heads. Owen scored straight after, and then toured inside our byline (think it was him anyway) and the ball was in the net again. Text messages revealed that Chris Baird got in on the act somewhere along the way. Then, just as we were maybe starting to think the storm had passed, Frank Lampard hit a shot that was heading straight for the hands of the diving Maik Taylor, when Mad Murdock stooped to head the ball clear, completely changing its pathway and directing it past a helpless Taylor, who didn’t deserve to concede one today, never mind four.
And that was that. It could have been more. Owen (?) missed an empty net. We managed a shot on target, just. After the fourth, Davis came on and looked simply brilliant. So he’s starting in Poland then?! Damo kicked the ball away in frustration to pick up the only booking of the afternoon, and rumour has it he’s now suspended for Poland.
However, we completely trounced them where it really mattered. The singing. They were awful. Time and time again they were invited to sing but couldn’t. In the end, we even produced a session of “Eng-uh-lind” for them out of sympathy. One of my greatest regrets in Wales was that the general populace of Norn Iron fans didn’t have the wit to sing “You’re supposed to be at home” when it was clearly so relevant. However we managed to get it lit up plenty of times today. It was great throughout but even more so in the first half, when it was true in a footballing sense as well as in the war of the supporters.
Some classics today (some of which I’ve probably forgot), apart from the almost constant “Shall we sing a song for you?” and our usual favourites:
“66, you’re having a laugh”
“You’ve got the worst songs in the world”
“4-0, and you still won’t sing!”
“The Flower of Scotland” – along with some boy with bagpipes! Must learn the words for future reference.
NORTHERN IRELAND: Taylor, Baird, Hughes, Murdock, Capaldi, Gillespie, Johnson, Doherty (Davis 59), Whitley (Jones 88), Elliott, Healy (Kirk 88)
Not Used: Carroll, Williams, Craigan, Feeney
Pictures of the game, the trip, and famous people to follow on Monday

England 4 Northern Ireland 0

I’m totally wrecked but I thought I’d throw together a match report while events are still fresh in my memory.
A superb battling performance from Northern Ireland, every man a hero. We played some lovely football, survived some scares (Rooney hit the post) and Maik Taylor pulled off some amazing saves (the best from a Beckham free kick) but we kept it goalless.
However, that’s only the story of the first half. As soon as the second half started we capitulated, and all our hard work was undone in a matter of minutes.
Let’s reflect on the first half first though. 4-5-1 as expected. The reports were true that Doherty was in instead of Davis. Thankfully Andrew Smith wasn’t on the bench. The game kicked off and England just flew at us. The back 4 were superb. Howlin’ Mad Murdock – what a hero! Stopping everything. Baird looked far, far sharper than a season of reserve team football would suggest. Hughes and Capaldi, doing well. Owen had a one on one with Maik early on, but our number 1 effortlessly, almost scoffingly, saved the day. Rooney headed onto the post – and from behind the net there was a delay as we wondered whether the ball would bounce in or out – and then it looked like Baird was about to smash it into his own net, but he cleared it for a corner.
Going forward, well, not a lot happening and we didn’t have a shot on target in the half. However we were playing well and played some great passing, possession football. Whitley was brilliant. Gillespie was TRYING, and winning header after header against Ashley Cole from Maik’s goal kicks. Healy did well as the lone striker and Elliott bombed up as often as he could and worked hard. It was all going so well. “It’s just like watching Brazil” all six and a half thousand of us sung during a particularly good period just before half time, and it was.
When the first 45 were up the big scoreboards read ‘England 0 Northern Ireland 0′ and we had visions of it staying like that for the whole match, maybe us even nicking a winner. Lawrie had obviously told his players before the game that they would come at us like nothing normal in the first 20 minutes or so, and we had responded excellently. However, either he didn’t tell them this again at half time, or they promptly forgot. Just minutes into the half, we had just got away with some suicidal defending before Tony Capaldi passed the ball to Joe Cole on the edge of the box. Bang. 1-0. Just like that. “Went down” doesn’t even begin to describe what happened to our players’ heads. Owen scored straight after, and then toured inside our byline (think it was him anyway) and the ball was in the net again. Text messages revealed that Chris Baird got in on the act somewhere along the way. Then, just as we were maybe starting to think the storm had passed, Frank Lampard hit a shot that was heading straight for the hands of the diving Maik Taylor, when Mad Murdock stooped to head the ball clear, completely changing its pathway and directing it past a helpless Taylor, who didn’t deserve to concede one today, never mind four.
And that was that. It could have been more. Owen (?) missed an empty net. We managed a shot on target, just. After the fourth, Davis came on and looked simply brilliant. So he’s starting in Poland then?! Damo kicked the ball away in frustration to pick up the only booking of the afternoon, and rumour has it he’s now suspended for Poland.
However, we completely trounced them where it really mattered. The singing. They were awful. Time and time again they were invited to sing but couldn’t. In the end, we even produced a session of “Eng-uh-lind” for them out of sympathy. One of my greatest regrets in Wales was that the general populace of Norn Iron fans didn’t have the wit to sing “You’re supposed to be at home” when it was clearly so relevant. However we managed to get it lit up plenty of times today. It was great throughout but even more so in the first half, when it was true in a footballing sense as well as in the war of the supporters.
Some classics today (some of which I’ve probably forgot), apart from the almost constant “Shall we sing a song for you?” and our usual favourites:
“66, you’re having a laugh”
“You’ve got the worst songs in the world”
“4-0, and you still won’t sing!”
“The Flower of Scotland” – along with some boy with bagpipes! Must learn the words for future reference.
NORTHERN IRELAND: Taylor, Baird, Hughes, Murdock, Capaldi, Gillespie, Johnson, Doherty (Davis 59), Whitley (Jones 88), Elliott, Healy (Kirk 88)
Not Used: Carroll, Williams, Craigan, Feeney
Pictures of the game, the trip, and famous people to follow on Monday

Warning

The dirty English FA are trying to change our game with them on the 26th of March from a 3pm kick off to 7:30pm. Many Northern Ireland fans have already booked flight/boat tickets home on the Saturday night, but if you haven’t but were intending to, it would be advisable to wait before booking.
The only hope is that the Greater Manchester Police don’t want it moved. Seeing that I have plane tickets booked for about half 9 on the Saturday night, I am Not Happy to say the least.

Further details on Wales Away (8th Sept)

Kick Off: 8pm
Tickets: £25 (no concessions). Everyone who applied for tickets to the IFA should have been sent a further application form. These must be filled in and returned to the IFA by Friday 30th July 2004.

Wales Tickets

The IFA’s David Currie has said that applications for tickets for the World Cup Qualifier against Wales in September must be with him by the 30th of June, a tad earlier than was expected. You can either apply by writing to David at the IFA, or emailing dcurrie at irishfa.com. The price of the tickets hasn’t been set yet.
Any Norn Iron fans who are planning to fly with Flybe would be advised to check that their flights haven’t been changed, as the airline have changed a number of flights scheduled for the day before the match.