Northern Ireland move into contention with San Marino win
Worthington's side cruised through the match against San Marino
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Wednesday, 11, Feb 2009 10:14
Northern Ireland have moved into contention in their World Cup qualifying group following a comfortable 3-0 win over San Marino.
Gareth McAuley, Grant McCann and Chris Brunt scored for Nigel Worthington's side to put them in second place in Group Three thanks to a superior goal difference.
Northern Ireland are now level with Poland, Czech Republic and Slovenia on seven points but have played one game more than their rivals.
The visitors dominated proceedings and got an early goal thanks to McAuley. McCann swung in a perfect cross and the defender fired home from inside the box with just five minutes gone.
Seven minutes later McCann was able to produce a carbon copy of that corner but this time Stephen Craigan failed to find the target with his shot.
Northern Ireland continued to press forward to a second goal and were rewarded when McCann followed up Martin Paterson's blocked shot to curl home a goal from the edge of the box.
Before half-time Kyle Lafferty and David Healy both went close but sent their shots just wide of the post.
After the interval full-back Carlo Valentini almost capitalised on a rare attack for San Marino but sent his shot into the side-netting.
McCann continued his excellent first half with a free-kick after an hour that skimmed the top of the crossbar.
However, Northern Ireland's third goal was not far away and Brunt managed to score from a set-piece of his own eight minutes later.
The only downside for Worthington was the bookings picked up by George McCartney, Steve Davis and Lafferty which means they will miss the next qualifier against Poland at Windsor Park on March 28th.