Match Reports - Senior
Wed, 6 Feb 2008Northern Ireland v. Bulgaria
| Northern Ireland |
0-1 | Bulgaria Evans og |
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NIGEL Worthington lost his unbeaten home record as Northern Ireland boss tonight at Windsor Park as a Jonny Evans own goal gave visitors Bulgaria the edge in this Nationwide International.
Evans turned the ball into his own net whilst attempting to clear a Martin Petrov ball across the face of goal after the Manchester City winger - later named man-of-the-match - got away from marker Keith Gillespie down the right before being presented with the open goal as 'keeper Maik Taylor committed himself a little too early.
On reflection it was probably no less than the visitors deserved after an at times lacklustre occasion in which they created the most promising of what limited scoring opportunities were created.
They first threatened on eight minutes when Zdravko Lazarov got on the end of a ball into the box only for Taylor to block the ball with his legs despite the attentions of Dimitar Berbatov.
Then, on 23 minutes, Aleksandar Tunchev is allowed a free header from a Petrov free-kick but again Taylor did well with a finger-tip save over the bar.
At the other end Northern Ireland could point to a 6th minute David Healy effort which drifted just wide of the target while, on the half-hour, Chris Brunt delivered the ball into the box for Kyle Lafferty but the big Burnley striker didn't get enough contact on the ball to trouble 'keeper Georgi Petkov.
Northern Ireland had reasonable penalty claims waved away seven minutes into the second half when Healy appeared to bundled over on the edge of the area but Scottish referee Dougie McDonald waved play on.
And a minute later Stephen Craigan almost got a boot to a Brunt ball into the back post but within sixty seconds at the other end a Petrov ball into the box takes an awkward bounce in front of Taylor who thankfully deals with the situation confidently.
Petrov threatened again just after the hour with a free-kick from distance but, once more, Taylor coped well despite the ball taking a deflection.
The action continued swiftly as the game finally started to spring into life when a Healy free-kick is knocked over the wall while Brunt fires the resultant corner straight into the grateful arms of substitute 'keeper Ivankov although, a minute later, he almost makes amends when he forces Ivankov into a save with a low left-foot drive.
The visitors might have doubled their advantage on 71 minutes through Popov but he delays administering the killer punch and allows Chris Baird to snuff out the danger.
Not long after Northern Ireland have another decent penalty shout dismissed when Martin Paterson - making his home debut - is brought down as he advanced into the area.
With seven minutes left Linfield 'keeper Alan Mannus replaced Taylor and almost instantly came within a whisker of picking the ball out of the net when some poor defending by Aaron Hughes let Angelov through but fortunately Stephen Craigan was on hand to clear the ball off the line.
A couple of minutes later Popov was played through by Petrov as the visitors looked to put the issue to bed but Mannus reacts well to pull off an excellent save.
But Northern Ireland had one late chance to salvage a share of the spoils when, three minutes into stoppage time, second half substitute Steve Davis set Healy up from a free-kick but the normally deadly Fulham striker fired well over - and with it any hopes of avoiding defeat.
