Jamie Donley’s first worldwide aim noticed Northern Eire finish their World Cup qualifying Group A marketing campaign with a colorless 1-0 win over Luxembourg at a subdued Windsor Park.
Donley, making his first aggressive Northern Eire begin, despatched Anthony Moris the improper method from the penalty spot within the forty fourth minute after Christopher Martins fouled Ciaron Brown within the field, and that was all it took to settle a disappointing sport.
Northern Eire had hoped this might be the evening they secured second place within the group, however Friday’s stoppage-time 1-0 defeat to Slovakia left this as a dead-rubber – albeit with a play-off place in March to look ahead to anyway due to their Nations League group win final 12 months.
Michael O’Neill made six adjustments, handing Jamie McDonnell his first begin, changing the injured Bailey Peacock-Farrell with Conor Hazard and in addition bringing in Donley, Brown, Jamal Lewis and Ethan Galbraith again from suspension.
The supervisor disregarded Trai Hume fully and saved Justin Devenny and Josh Magennis on the bench, citing the chance of suspension for the play-off semi-final amid uncertainty over the rules for these already on a yellow card.
On Sunday, the Northern Eire supervisor mentioned his request for clarification on the principles had gone unanswered, however the official team-sheet confirmed there have been no gamers, together with these on a yellow, vulnerable to a ban.
After a minute’s applause in reminiscence of George Greatest, who died 20 years in the past this month, the match kicked off in an environment turning into of a sport with nothing using on it.
Isaac Value hit a volley straight at Moris within the ninth minute earlier than a neat transfer began by Donley and involving Galbraith and Value ended with Lewis, making his first worldwide look in 13 months, blazing over.
Followers had been off their seats within the seventeenth minute when Donley turned in from Galbraith’s cross, however it was dominated out with the latter being in an offside place within the build-up.
Luxembourg, whose solely aim of a depressing marketing campaign got here in September’s 3-1 loss to Northern Eire, threatened as Christopher Martins was denied by a very good save from Hazard, making his first aggressive begin in additional than two years. Moments later, Dirk Carlson swept extensive.
But it surely was fairly tepid stuff till 5 minutes earlier than half-time when referee Kristo Tohver was despatched to the display by VAR Bram Van Driessche, who had noticed Martins catching Brown together with his boot.
There had been half-hearted appeals from Northern Eire gamers, who had been busy watching Value hearth extensive from the sting of the field, however the penalty was given to the fury of Luxembourg.
Each Moris and coach Dan Huet – who stepped in for the suspended Jeff Strasser on the touchline – had been booked for his or her protests earlier than Donley stepped as much as rating Northern Eire’s one hundredth World Cup qualifying aim at Windsor Park.
Amid quite a lot of second-half adjustments there was an 86th cap for Magennis that strikes him stage with Keith Gillespie as Northern Eire’s tenth most-capped gamers and a debut for Barnsley’s Patrick Kelly, however a poor contest was tapering off.
It ended with Luxembourg interesting for a penalty as Benfica’s Leandro Barreiro tumbled underneath a problem from Kelly, however Tohver waved away their protests as the ultimate whistle blew.
O’Neill praises the ‘actual high quality’ of Donley
Northern Eire boss Michael O’Neill talking about Jamie Donley at his post-match press convention:
“Jamie’s a real player, real quality. I wanted to see him as a nine. There’s no secret the nine is a problem position for us and I think Jamie has different attributes from some of the other strikers.
“I believed he did very well within the sport. He is intelligent, his link-up play is sweet. He took the penalty nicely and also you noticed the end for the aim that was disallowed. Ethan was offside, however you noticed the standard that Jamie displayed in that second.”
Donley caught the eye while at Leyton Orient last season, but this campaign has been more difficult with limited game time at Stoke, where he has made only six appearances so far.
“He is unlucky that the mortgage he is on on the minute from Spurs to Stoke isn’t going as he would have deliberate and he is not been given many alternatives, however hopefully that state of affairs resolves itself in January,” O’Neill added.
“He is a very excessive technical stage of participant, an awesome left foot, actual consciousness and nice imaginative and prescient, only a actually good footballer – easy as that. I watched him at Orient final 12 months in lots of video games and thought he was the very best participant on the pitch…
“He’s 20 years of age and he’s got a lot ahead of him.”
