Northern Ireland v Norway

DID YOU KNOW?

Words Marshall Gillespie

A total of 11 players have scored two or more goals on their international debut for Northern Ireland. The first player to achieve this was Preston North End forward Andrew Gara who actually scored a hat-trick in a 3-0 victory over Wales in Cardiff on 22 February 1902, the only player to manage this feat to date. The last debutant who managed to score more than one goal on his first appearance for Northern Ireland was record goalscorer David Healy who hit a brace in a 3-1 victory over Luxembourg on 23 February 2000.

Tonight’s UEFA Nations League contest with Norway will be Northern Ireland’s 650th international outing since their first against England at Ballynafeigh in south Belfast on 18 February 1882. Of the 648 matches played before Friday’s meeting with Romania, Northern Ireland had won 167, drawn 148 and lost 333. A total of 301 of those matches have been played at home, 316 on away grounds and 31 at neutral venues. Ireland/Northern Ireland have scored a total of 391 goals at home in their 138-year international history - at 10 different venues. Obviously the large majority of the goals (318) have come at Windsor Park, but it may come as a surprise to some that the ground which has seen the second highest amount of international goals is Cliftonville’s home, Solitude, with 30. The venue to see the first ever Ireland/Northern Ireland ‘home’ goal was the Ulster Cricket Ground when Moyola Park’s William Morrow scored in a 1-1 draw with Wales on St Patrick’s Day 1883. The ‘home’ grounds that Ireland/ Northern Ireland have scored at are: Windsor Park (318 goals), Solitude (30), Celtic Park (10), Ulster Cricket Grounds (10), Ulsterville (7), Oldpark (6), Grosvenor Park (4), Dalymount Park, Dublin (3), The Oval (2), Ballynafeigh (1).

Norway were the first ‘foreign’ opposition that Northern Ireland ever played when they met in a friendly international in Bergen on 25 May 1922 with the home side running out 2-1 winners. Northern Ireland have only twice beaten the Norwegians, the first occasion being in a European Championship qualifier in October 1975 when goals from Sammy Morgan, Sammy McIlroy and Bryan Hamilton gave them a handsome 3-0 victory. The second, and last, time they were victorious over the Scandinavians was in March 2017 when they won 2-0 in a World Cup qualifier at the National Stadium thanks to strikes from Jamie Ward and Conor Washington. The full record against Norway is:

P W D L F A 10 2 0 8 10 21

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