Squad Profiles - Senior

HE'S Northern Ireland's record scorer (34 goals). He scored our first goal in over two years to bring to an end our unwanted record-breaking barren spell ..... and then there was THAT goal against England....and then THAT hat-trick against Spain.

There's not really a lot more can be written about him. They used to say he was the next George Best. Future generations will look upon him as the first David Healy.

To be fair, it wasn't hard to see why such grandiose claims were made of young Healy. Once highly rated at Manchester United it was during his time at Old Trafford that Healy averaged a goal every other game for the Under 21s, then banged in three in his first two games for the senior side.

Unfortunately after a bright start to his senior career (six goals in ten games) Healy suffered - along with everyone else - during that horrific, fruitless 1,298 minute spell.

Then came that momentous night in February 2004 in a friendly against Norway. Lawrie Sanchez went in at half-time, his side 3-0 down in his first game in charge, hardly a start to remember.

Then, nine minutes after the restart, the diminutive Healy slides the ball home. Ecstasy. We lost 4-1, you'd have thought we had just lifted the World Cup.

Since then Healy hasn't looked back. He scored the winner in our next outing, went on tour with the side to the Caribbean, grabbed another four goals and - against Trinidad & Tobago - smashed the long-standing scoring record. And who can forget that night in Cardiff?

In August 2006, he won his 50th cap in a friendly against Finland in Helsinki - and on a night when he also captained the side he scored his 20th goal.

And then in September of last year he put three past the mightly Spain and became the first player to score a hat-trick at Windsor Park since George Best - 35 years ago.

David Healy has already gone down in Northern Ireland history, and bearing in mind that he's only 28, there's still much more to come from the Killyleagh man.