NI v Czech Republic

Steven Davis has played 45 of his 95 international matches at the National Football Stadium at Windsor Park. To date he has been on the winning side 23 times and tasted defeat on just 13 occasions. The Southampton midfielder is now catching up with stalwart defender Aaron Hughes who has played 54 of his 106 matches in Belfast.

Northern Ireland have scored 32 goals in 20 matches at the National Football Stadium during Michael O’Neill’s tenure. Those goals have been spread among 14 players with, not surprisingly, Kyle Lafferty leading the way with nine. His nearest challenger is skipper Steven Davis who has managed four, including a memorable brace against Greece that sealed a place at Euro 2016.

Northern Ireland have played international matches on 4 September on five previous occasions, winning one, drawing one and losing three. The full list is: 2016 v Czech Republic (a) WCQ drew 0-0 2015 v Faroe Islands (a) ECQ won 3-1 2004 v Poland (h) WCQ lost 0-3 1999 v Turkey (h) ECQ lost 0-3 1974 v Norway (a) ECQ lost 1-2

At the time of writing Ollie Norwood is still awaiting his first full international goal. However, the on-loan Fulham midfielder has managed to score on the international stage - in an under-21 fixture against the Czech Republic. It came on 17 November 2009 when he curled home a wonderful free-kick in a qualifying encounter at the Ballymena Showgrounds (NB: all statistics were correct prior to San Marino game on Friday).

If Ryan McLaughlin manages to find the net for Northern Ireland he will become the first Oldham Athletic player to score for ‘our wee country’ since Billy Johnston got on the scoresheet in a 4-1 friendly victory over Mexico on 22 June 1966.

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