Steven Davis keeps up Northern Ireland feelgood factor with winner
Northern Ireland 1 - 0 LatviaHome team scorers
Steven Davis 55
Steven Davis scores Northern Ireland’s winning goal against Latvia on Friday night.
At some point, Northern Ireland will presumably have to divert serious attention towards the European Championship. Not that there appears any immediate rush: the adulation bestowed upon Michael O’Neill and his history-makers shows no sign of abating.
Given what had come immediately before, this was a positively low-key success to round off 2015. But success it was, in the latest positive occasion between a management team, group of players and fanbase who are revelling in the here and now. In seven months’ time, that terrific brand of logic which manifests itself in football will have Northern Ireland believing they can conquer the best in this continent. Who can reasonably deny them that?
“It has been a great year, we have had a great campaign and it is important to recognise the achievements of this team,” said O’Neill. “That’s eight games unbeaten, we had another clean sheet; it is all positive.
“ It is important that the players realised what got them to this position; belief, work-rate, confidence. They tuned into that and understood that. They didn’t go flat.”
There was never any question that Latvia would be swatted aside at Windsor Park, with only the slim margin of victory of possible annoyance to O’Neill. “It could have been more,” said the manager with more than a hint of understatement.
Far, far tougher tests lie in wait – Latvia offered absolutely nothing of attacking consequence – but Northern Ireland are still entitled to revel in a gloriously positive football tale. A glance at the teams from which O’Neill compiles squads offers a glowing reflection of his work.
The first glimpse of planning for next summer in France came by way of O’Neill’s team set-up. He broke with recent history by deploying a back three; an experiment that made perfect sense given Craig Cathcart, Gareth McAuley and Jonny Evans all hold down regular places in England’s top flight.
Given qualifying success, O’Neill could readily have dodged this international window. Perhaps he believed his players worthy of further plaudits from a support who have seen constant disappointment replaced by giddy excitement. Home friendly matches, after all, haven’t been a fixture of O’Neill’s tenure at all.
Latvia always looked favourable opponents. They finished bottom of Group A with five points – and not a single win – from 10 games. Marian Pahars, renowned for occasional magic when a player at Southampton, will require identical touch if afforded further time to turn around his national team’s fortunes.
The hosts’ start was unsurprisingly bright. Steven Davis, typically, was the fulcrum for everything positive about Northern Ireland’s play. A sublime pass to Kyle Lafferty should have ensured an opening goal on the half-hour mark but the striker never appeared confident when clean through and duly pulled his attempt wide.
Evans missed an equally fine opportunity in the seconds before the interval, the West Brom man’s header bouncing past the left-hand post of Andris Vanins. Such wastefulness, needless to say, hasn’t been a feature of Northern Ireland when it counts.
Lafferty, who has emerged as a talisman for his country despite a chequered time at club level, forced Vanins into a smart save within five minutes of the restart as O’Neill’s team pressed further for the goal their dominance deserved.
Lafferty, who has little to prove on the international scene at least, lasted only another nine minutes before the rejuvenated Kilmarnock striker Josh Magennis took his place.
Lafferty was en route to the shower as Davis broke the deadlock in what was a fitting reward for the midfielder’s performance. Cathcart was the unlikely architect, with a swinging cross which his captain met at the back post. Davis needed two attempts but still managed to beat Vanins to trigger merely the latest round of Windsor Park celebrations.
The raft of substitutions which so undermine these matches was to follow. The loudest appreciation arrived for Davis as the mercurial Paddy McCourt appeared in his place. For all these alterations punctured the game, the incessant flow of traffic towards the Latvia goal was never stemmed.
But there was to be no second goal. The closet to it arriving was via Vitalijs Maksimenko, who shanked a clearance perilously close to his own net. The extent to which O’Neill opts to test his squad in terms of friendly opposition before Euro 2016 will prove a matter of intrigue. As qualifying group winners, Northern Ireland have earned the right to be picky. They are also riding the crest of a confidence wave; Latvia were never likely to do any harm to that.
Guardian
