Northern Ireland v Norway Official Match Programme

Steven Davis and Norway legend John Arne Riise tussle for possession back in 2012. Goals from Havard Nordtveit, Tarik Elyounoussi and Espen Ruud ensured Michael O'Neill's first match as Northern Ireland boss ended in defeat.

On the other hand one tradition which we would all like to be maintained is that Northern Ireland have not lost a competitive home match since Cristiano Ronaldo plundered a second half hat-trick against us back in September 2013. There is no doubt that is a tradition worth keeping. I suppose the lesson is that if it suits us we like to see tradition maintained, but if it doesn’t we are all for change and innovation. As one famous coach memorably said: “Let’s win the match first, then we can discuss whether or not we played well.” Let’s grab the points tonight and then we can debate whether we are maintaining the traditions of the Northern Ireland team and the Irish FA or merely starting new ones. Mind you, there must be some way to ensure that all the players wear black boots… Words: William Campbell

The tradition that has built up since 1986 of Northern Ireland not qualifying for the World Cup Finals tournament is another one we all would like to see ended - and as soon as possible please! It’s time the Spanish lessons taken for the trip to Guadalajara in 1986 are superseded by the Russian ones for the impending visit to Moscow. Another one we trust will bite the dust tonight is that Northern Ireland have not defeated Norway in Belfast since 1975. We have had five goes at it, including that memorable night in 2004 when, in Lawrie Sanchez’s first match in charge, David Healy famously scored the goal that rebooted our goalscoring at international level, albeit in the euphoria of that goal it is often overlooked that the Norwegians had scored four! In 1990, 96, 2001, 2004 and more recently in 2012 the Norwegians have come and left with the spoils so it is high time that that particular little tradition was ended.

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