W2C-001 Belfast telegraph 1-4.txt
THE MIGHTY QUINN John Laverty

'Goalden' strike as Bingham's men reap triumph hat-trick

Wet, wet, wet at Windsor Park....and win, win, win for Northern Ireland. The rain lashed stadium last night bore witness to a little bit of footballing history, with Billy Bingham's men recording a third successive World Cup victory for the first time.

Goals from Jimmy Quinn - his first for three and a half years - and Philip Gray - his first in a Northern Ireland shirt - lifted the hearts of 6,500 fans who had braved the inclement elements.

Sadly, the gloom of World Cup failure prevails; Denmark's 1-0 defeat of Albania earlier in the day rendered even the most optimistic mathematician's calculator redundant.

The win-win-win sequence of recent months has a pleasing symmetry but the draw-wind-draw start to the campaign had already produced an incline that proved ultimately insurmountable.

Low-key

Perhaps that scenario led to the low-key approach to last night's encounter which was more entertaining than the Test Card - but only just.

Let's not, however, dwell on negative aspects of what was after all a further morale boost to our international prospects.

Bingham wants to leave a fitting legacy to his successor and all the signs point to him achieving this.

Gray, for instance, looks a class act and although last night's display was not his most dynamic in a green shirt he marked it with a goal of sheer quality.

Right back Gary Fleming's renaissance at international level is now complete, exemplified by another purposeful display.

And Keith Rowland looked comfortable when he came on for his first cap in the second half...another lad who can do a useful job for Northern Ireland in years to come.

The night, however, belonged to Quinn, one of the oldest men on the park.

Sceptics - myself included - questioned Bingham's wisdom of picking the 33-year old Reading striker ahead of one of our more mobile midfielders such as O'Neill or Black.

But Quinn, playing a withdrawn role behind the two main forwards responded with one of his best performances for Northern Ireland; easily the man of the match.

He put the home side on their way with an excellent goal in the first half, had what looked like a perfectly good effort ruled out in the second and caused the Latvians all sorts of problems with his well timed runs from deep.

Revelled

His positioning helped Iain Dowie - the pair have tended to get in each others'way on past occasions - and Dowie revelled in the extra space.

Like Quinn, this was one of his best displays on a murky night when no Northern Ireland player could be faulted for effort.

The home side dominated a first half climaxed by Quinn's goal after 33 minutes.

Michael Hughes swung in a corner kick from the right and the big striker timed his run perfectly to glance a header past Oleg Karavaev.

Quinn nearly got a second just before the break but this time Kavavaev was equal to a close-range effort after Gerry Taggart had provided the opportunity with a bustling header.

Quinn's steady head found the rigging again midway through the second half, from new skipper Nigel Worthington's cross, but this time the 'goal' was disallowed.

Video re-runs hinted that Dowie had impeded a defender thus giving Quinn the necessary space but it seemed a harsh decision.

It would have given Northern Ireland breathing space; at 1-0 there was still a trace of anxiety in their play and Latvia, for whom Popkob and Charando had looked dangerous in the first half were never totally out of it.

Unlucky

Taggart was unlucky to see a header, from the impressive Fleming's cross-shot cannon back off the crossbar but Northern Ireland made the game safe ten minutes from the end.

Again Fleming was involved, linking up with Mal Donaghy before finding Gray on the edge of the penalty area.

The new Sunderland striker steadied himself before blasting an unstoppable left-foot drive past Karavaev.

The back-lift was imperceptible, unlike the joy in the Northern Ireland camp.

Binghams's men had reigned in the rain; what a pity the deluge of good results had come to late to save the harvest.
