Can We Kick It? Yes We Can...
Tue, Sept 08 2009
Kyle Lafferty has kept Northern Ireland's dreams of qualification for South Africa alive and kicking.
The Poles were threatening from the start but Gareth McAuley was in outstanding form that will surely see him regularly placed marshalling our defence, if not a pending captaincy.
Lafferty too was proving to be a threat and took his chance in the 38th minute slipping the ball through the legs of the increasingly very popular indeed Artur Boruc.
The Poles continued to threat but again McAuley was priceless. The second half seemed to last an eternity and saw our boys under tremendous pressure with outstanding home support behind the home team. Pato nearly wrapped it up for us, but a scramble saw a lost opportunity and ecstatic celebration nullified from the 800 or so traveling Northern Ireland supporters.
Poland always looked likely to grab an equaliser, and 10 minutes from time Lewandowski slotted home a low cross between two defenders.
So there it ended but an absolutely tremendous result. Worthington was a happy chappy indeed at final whistle. This is a great moment in Northern Irish football. More encouraging is the outstanding performances put in by McAuley, McCann, Lafferty, Davis and again Johnson.
It's crunch time on Wednesday, and with the Slovaks top of the Group we are going to have to sprinkle some of that magic Windsor dust. Bring it on.
For a more detailed report see HD12 , which will be a limited edition, by the way!
It's a long story, but we've been away. Been a long summer...
home
