Northern Ireland v Cyprus (12/06/2020)

GEORGE’S BRILLIANT BEST

He scored his second goal of the evening two minutes after the restart . A long ball from David Craig was played into his path by Dougan and Northern Ireland’s number 11 went on to cut round a defender and slot a shot into the far corner. ‘El Beatle’ - George was dubbed as the fifth member of The Beatles in his heyday - was initially thwarted with his attempts to score a hat-trick as he struck the woodwork and put another effort wide soon after. But it didn’t take long for him to become the first Northern Ireland player in 11 years to score three times in one game when he netted directly from a corner on 56 minutes. And he rattled Cyprus’ woodwork again before Jimmy Nicholson completed Northern Ireland’s 5-0 victory with an 85th-minute strike that went in via a def lection off Kyriakos Koureas. Belfast-born Best netted a total of nine times in 37 appearances for Northern Ireland between 1964 and 1977. He is one of only five players to have scored three times in a single match for Northern Ireland at the time of writing, the other hat-trick heroes being Billy McAdams (v West Germany, October 1960) , Johnny Crossan (v Albania, May 1965) , Colin Clarke (v Faroe Islands, September 1991) and David Healy (v Spain in September 2006 and v Liechtenstein in March 2007) . Best’s hat-trick was the fastest of those listed, with his trio against Cyprus at Windsor Park in April 1971 arriving in the space of 12 minutes. At club level he scored four hat- tricks (or better) for Manchester United. He famously scored six goals for United in their 8-2 FA Cup fifth round win at Northampton Town in February 1970.

WORDS: ANDY GREEVES

The late, great George Best scored a memorable hat-trick in Northern Ireland’s emphatic victory over Cyprus in April 1971. The draw for UEFA Euro 1972 qualifying placed Billy Bingham’s Northern Ireland in Group 4 along with Cyprus, Spain and the Soviet Union. The boys in green and white were beaten 3-0 by Spain in Seville in their opening qualifier on 11 November 1970 but bounced back to defeat Cyprus 3-0 on a rain-sodden pitch in Nicosia on 3 February 1971 in their next match. Local fans packed into the GSP Stadium for the aforementioned match, desperate to see 1967 Ballon d’Or winner Best in action. When Best scored a late penalty, many ran on to the pitch to celebrate his goal with him! In the reverse fixture in Belfast in April 1971, Best was the centre of attention once again. Newly appointed captain Derek Dougan gave Northern Ireland the lead after just 90 seconds of the match as he headed in from a Sammy Todd cross. Bryan Hamilton had a ‘goal’ disallowed and Dave Clements struck the visitors’ woodwork before Best made it two a minute before the half-time interval . The Manchester United star caught goalkeeper Herodotos Koupanos by surprise as he hit a shot from the edge of the 18-yard-box that went in off the post , with Cyprus’ stopper rooted to the spot .

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