Northern Ireland v Israel

NORTHERN IRELAND’S LATEST CENTURIONS RECEIVE SPECIAL RECOGNITION

Centurions: Julie Nelson and Steven Davis

The Irish FA has been marking the achievements of Northern Ireland’s latest centurions.

Meanwhile, Northern Ireland’s first ever female centurion is the President’s special guest at tonight’s game against Israel. Julie Nelson, who reached the landmark figure in last week’s Women’s World Cup qualifier defeat to Slovakia, has already received a medal and cap from UEFA to mark the occasion and a special Irish FA cap will be presented to her this evening. Steven and Julie are only the third and fourth players respectively to reach a century of caps for Northern Ireland after Pat Jennings (119) and Aaron Hughes (112), who unfortunately had to drop out of the squad for the games against the Bosnians and Israel due to a calf injury Words Nigel Tilson

Senior men’s team captain Steven Davis reached the landmark of 100 caps for his country during the first leg of the World Cup play-off against Switzerland in Belfast last November. He played in the second leg of the play-off against Switzerland in Basel to make it 101 appearances but he missed the South Korea friendly in March and the two games in Central America back in the summer due to injury. That meant the first opportunity to present him with a special Irish FA cap to mark his 100th appearance came on Saturday when the memento was handed over by Irish FA President David Martin before the UEFA Nations League encounter with Bosnia and Herzegovina.

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