Northern Ireland 2 Sweden 1

Once again little Norn Iron punch above their weight and move to the top of their section in the European Qualifiers. This time Fortress Windsor Park witnessed them coming from behind to add Sweden to their list of conquests. And once again it was (sir) David Healy who scored the goals for them.

There are people out there wondering why it is that he constantly scores important goals for Northern Ireland against world class opposition like Sweden and Spain yet can’t seem to score against Coca-Cola Championship teams for Leeds United. While Northern Ireland are top of their table due to Healy’s goals (he’s scored 9 of their 10 goals in the competition – in only 6 matches) Leeds are languishing in last place in their table – and Healy has only scored 8 goals in 28 appearances.

It was David Healy who eventually broke the 1298 minute goal drought that Northern Ireland were suffering a couple of years ago. It was David Healy who reduced Ian Wright (BBC pundit) to a great big huff when his goal beat England soon after. Yet David Healy can’t even get a place in a Leeds side that is really struggling to avoid relegation. Why is that?

If we give David Healy chances he will score. He had two chances and scored both - top class, world class finishing.
N Ireland Coach, Lawrie Sanchez

Well they don’t play him from the start of the match regularly enough. Often they play him out of position. I don’t know – maybe he just likes the fact that he is the big star in the team when he plays for NI.



To be honest I don’t know and I don’t care. I just like the fact that he scores goals for his country – I’ll leave Dennis Wise to ponder the rest.



The one thing that annoyed me most yesterday was TV. During the match itself I was doing sound for a play in Bangor. All I could do was check the BBC website for the scores on my phone. It was alright – the BBC were going to be showing highlights later on when the show had finished. After the strike I went to the green room and turned the TV on.



A Match of the Day Special. Highlights from all four home countries European qualifiers… except it wasn’t really. In a 45 minute slot the “highlights” of an abysmal England game against the mighty Andorra took 35 minutes. The Northern Irish game was shown in under 2 minutes – what was the reasoning behind that then? I can only assume that some power-that-be decided that more of the population would want to see England play than Scotland, Wales or Northern Ireland. But then I didn’t realise that the BBC was there to serve the majority at the expense of the minority. Anyway I won’t rant anymore – I was annoyed.



Luckily I think there’s a good chance that I got more enjoyment out of our two minutes than any England fan got out of their thirty five. And David Healy has something in common with the England players – he’s scored nine goals in the competition, and so have they.