News

After the disappointment of losing at home to Bulgaria last month Northern Ireland are desperate to put on a performance for the fans in what is anticipated to be yet another full house at 'The Shrine'.

"All the players and staff are really looking forward to meeting up again," said assistant manager Glynn Snodin. "Although I missed last month's encounter with Bulgaria from the reports I received we did not really do ourselves justice.

"I know the players will want to put that right against Georgia and round off the international season in style."

Georgia are very much an unknown quantity and Glynn admitted that at the minute he knows very little about them.

"I know they beat Scotland at home back in October, but we will sit and study the DVD's on them when we all meet up at the team hotel."

Manager Nigel Worthington named 22 players in his initial panel however, that figure has already been reduced to 18 due to withdrawals.

Scunthorpe United striker Martin Paterson is missing because he is in hospital with gastroenteritis, Chris Brunt has hamstring problems while midfield dynamo Sammy Clingan is needed by his club Nottingham Forest who have two important league fixtures this week

Derby County goalkeeper Roy Carroll, who was back in the squad after a seven month absence, is another casualty after suffering a recurrence of a groin strain that has been troubling him lately.

"Having Roy back was absolutely brilliant," admitted Glynn, "he is a very experienced keeper and he has been playing really well for Derby recently so it's disappointing he has had to drop out."

There was a massive boost for local football when Nigel Worthington named three Linfield players in his squad Alan Mannus, Peter Thompson and new-boy, 24 year-old midfielder Michael Gault.

"We get regular updates on players in the Irish League," said Glynn, "and believe me these boys are in on merit. We have also called up Crewe's Michael O'Connor for the first time as well, though I personally have not seen the lad play yet, but by all accounts he is an exciting prospect."

No fewer than seven of the players in the squad are now playing regularly in the top flight in England and Glynn believes this will only help Northern Ireland step up to the next level.

"The team achieved some superb results during the last qualifying campaign, but we now have to move up a gear and reach the next level of qualifying for World Cups and European Championships and having so many players playing week in and week out in the Premier League can only help us achieve that goal."

There may not be too many household names in the Georgia squad, but they acquitted themselves during the Euro 2008 qualifiers picking up a couple of wins over the Faroe Islands as well as a memorable victory over Scotland and narrow defeat at the hands of France and Italy.