Last night, I watched Northern Ireland finally get a win in the new qualifying campaign at home to San Marino. First time for a long time I’ve seen us score four goals in one match, and four different scorers as well. Scintillating stuff! In reality, it could have been more as there were some close calls, a few good saves and a few final balls messed up. But it’s just what was needed to boost confidence and hopefully get our slim chances of qualifying back on track, although Slovakia’s win against Poland wasn’t helpful.
It was another great atmosphere at Windsor Park last night, and what struck me as so different from other matches is the positivity – all the songs and chants are about Northern Ireland, a lot of them are fairly original, and none of them seem to be about booing or running down the other team, which is all very refreshing. Maybe England would like to play their home matches at Windsor Park rather than the soulless Wembley with it’s crowd ready to jump down the players throats after 10 goalless minutes.
Showing posts with label northern ireland. Show all posts
Showing posts with label northern ireland. Show all posts
Thursday, 16 October 2008
Wednesday, 10 September 2008
Northern Ireland 0 - 0 Czech Republic (and a little mention of England)
Sky's first match of their new deal to screen Northern Ireland's home internationals saw them screening probably Northern Ireland's toughest home fixture against group favourites Czech Republic. Gerry Armstrong took a break from his La Liga duties to play summariser, and the little Northern Irish man from Sky Sports News whose name escapes me presented the show.
Didn't quite catch the name of the commentator, it wasn't Jackie Fullerton but it sounded bloody like him, although with less of the trademark Fullerton chuckles.
It was a decent match though, both sides coming close. Chris Brunt has probably the best chance of the match, drawing a save out of Cech when baring down on goal, but a draw was probably fair. Northern Ireland were arguably the better team, but lacked cutting edge up front, as is often the problem. There was hope though, that it would be possible to get some results against the weaker teams in the group at Windsor Park if they played like that again - now if they can only produce that away from home.
Meanwhile, Setanta will be delighted with their match, England at Croatia, Walcott's hat-trick helping to earn a 4-1 win. I haven't seen any of the goals yet, but internet reports suggest a comprehensive win in the manner England should be capable of more often. Perhaps the knives where out for Cappello to soon - no doubt tomorrow's papers will go to the other extreme and start to build England up as World Cup hopefuls again, until the next bad result comes along.
Didn't quite catch the name of the commentator, it wasn't Jackie Fullerton but it sounded bloody like him, although with less of the trademark Fullerton chuckles.
It was a decent match though, both sides coming close. Chris Brunt has probably the best chance of the match, drawing a save out of Cech when baring down on goal, but a draw was probably fair. Northern Ireland were arguably the better team, but lacked cutting edge up front, as is often the problem. There was hope though, that it would be possible to get some results against the weaker teams in the group at Windsor Park if they played like that again - now if they can only produce that away from home.
Meanwhile, Setanta will be delighted with their match, England at Croatia, Walcott's hat-trick helping to earn a 4-1 win. I haven't seen any of the goals yet, but internet reports suggest a comprehensive win in the manner England should be capable of more often. Perhaps the knives where out for Cappello to soon - no doubt tomorrow's papers will go to the other extreme and start to build England up as World Cup hopefuls again, until the next bad result comes along.
Tuesday, 9 September 2008
Midweek internationals
Still struggling somewhat to get online regularly with the computer problems I’ve been having. I was down in London last weekend, which meant I missed most of the international “action” (quotation marks added in respect of England’s performance), and am off to a friend’s wedding this weekend means I’m missing the annual Merseyside grudgefest between Liverpool and Man Utd.
Still, will at least be able to take in the internationals tomorrow night. I’m hoping for another Windsor Park performance from Northern Ireland as we take on the Czech Republic. Russia will probably expect to comfortably beat a weak Wales team affected by injuries, Scotland must hope that George Burley picks up his first win as Scotland manager or qualification will look dead in the water before it’s properly begun. Croatia will be aiming to be the first nation to beat England in three successive competitive matches, and must fancy their chances against an England side who look, quite frankly, rotten.
Well worth a look (for those who don’t work during the day) is the Korean Clash on Eurosport at 1pm (UK time). Talk about a local derby with a bit of needle!
It still remains to be seen if highlights on the England match will turn up on any of the terrestrial channels, as, at the time of writing, nobody has matched Setanta’s asking price, leading to a lot of ill-feeling across various messageboards on the internet.
Still, will at least be able to take in the internationals tomorrow night. I’m hoping for another Windsor Park performance from Northern Ireland as we take on the Czech Republic. Russia will probably expect to comfortably beat a weak Wales team affected by injuries, Scotland must hope that George Burley picks up his first win as Scotland manager or qualification will look dead in the water before it’s properly begun. Croatia will be aiming to be the first nation to beat England in three successive competitive matches, and must fancy their chances against an England side who look, quite frankly, rotten.
Well worth a look (for those who don’t work during the day) is the Korean Clash on Eurosport at 1pm (UK time). Talk about a local derby with a bit of needle!
It still remains to be seen if highlights on the England match will turn up on any of the terrestrial channels, as, at the time of writing, nobody has matched Setanta’s asking price, leading to a lot of ill-feeling across various messageboards on the internet.
Wednesday, 20 August 2008
Scotland vs Northern Ireland, 20 August 2008
Scotland on Sky - Jim White is unlocked from the Sky Sports News studio and dispatched to Hampden, and Gerry Armstrong is removed from the room with the Spanish TV for his La Liga commentrary and sent up to join Jim. And as it's Scotland, of course Charlie Nicholas gets to do one of his live matches.
A match between two teams who narrowly missed out on going to Euro 2008 (and probably would have gone if they could have immproved some of their results against sides ranked much lower than them) and possibly a pre-cursor to some kind of revived Home Nations tournament, though not involving England as the rest of the British Isles are beneath them. Experimental sides from both teams - Ryan McGivern made his debut for Northern Ireland before he's even playe for Man City. To contrast the depth of resources available to each side, Northern Ireland named a massive 5 substitues.
Hampden wasn't full by any stretch, but there was a strong Northern Ireland contingent who made the short journey across the Irish Sea. There's fireworks and a loud PA playing Muse, booing for the Northern Irish anthem (not sure what the Scots have against God save the Queen), but the Northern Irish fans still manage to sing it at about twice the speed of the band.
Scrappy old game, few chances, Scotland had majority of the possession as Northern Ireland packed the midfield and chased and harried Scotland everytime they had the ball, trying to set David Healy away. Ryan McGivern managed to pick up two yellows on his debut, and picked up a red card on his debut. Surprisingly, one of his cards wasn't for his rubbish haircut. Northern Ireland earned a penalty not long after when Feeny was brought down in the area, but substitue Alan McGregor guessed correctly to save Healy's well struck penalty.
In other news, seems Silvrestre has left Man Utd for Arsenal. Looks lke Ferguson is trimming the squad down, presumably with a view to blooding more of the youngsters like Jonny Evans (although he's primarily a centre back) or the young Da Silva. Unusual for a transfer between two of the "Big Four", even if Silvestre is only likely to be as much of a squad player as he's been at Man Utd recently.
Sky: 5
Setanta: 3
BBC: 1
Foreign Satellite: 2
A match between two teams who narrowly missed out on going to Euro 2008 (and probably would have gone if they could have immproved some of their results against sides ranked much lower than them) and possibly a pre-cursor to some kind of revived Home Nations tournament, though not involving England as the rest of the British Isles are beneath them. Experimental sides from both teams - Ryan McGivern made his debut for Northern Ireland before he's even playe for Man City. To contrast the depth of resources available to each side, Northern Ireland named a massive 5 substitues.
Hampden wasn't full by any stretch, but there was a strong Northern Ireland contingent who made the short journey across the Irish Sea. There's fireworks and a loud PA playing Muse, booing for the Northern Irish anthem (not sure what the Scots have against God save the Queen), but the Northern Irish fans still manage to sing it at about twice the speed of the band.
Scrappy old game, few chances, Scotland had majority of the possession as Northern Ireland packed the midfield and chased and harried Scotland everytime they had the ball, trying to set David Healy away. Ryan McGivern managed to pick up two yellows on his debut, and picked up a red card on his debut. Surprisingly, one of his cards wasn't for his rubbish haircut. Northern Ireland earned a penalty not long after when Feeny was brought down in the area, but substitue Alan McGregor guessed correctly to save Healy's well struck penalty.
In other news, seems Silvrestre has left Man Utd for Arsenal. Looks lke Ferguson is trimming the squad down, presumably with a view to blooding more of the youngsters like Jonny Evans (although he's primarily a centre back) or the young Da Silva. Unusual for a transfer between two of the "Big Four", even if Silvestre is only likely to be as much of a squad player as he's been at Man Utd recently.
Sky: 5
Setanta: 3
BBC: 1
Foreign Satellite: 2
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