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Northern Ireland’s biggest ever
margin of victory in a qualifying
contest was a 4-0 success against
tonight’s opponents San Marino at
Windsor Park on 15 October 2008.
David Healy opened the scoring
and Nigel Worthington’s side went
on to add further goals from Grant
McCann (pictured), Kyle Lafferty and
Steven Davis
.
Northern Ireland have played a total
of 37 countries in their 123 qualifying
games in the World Cup, the most
frequent being Portugal whom they
have met on 10 occasions. Our full
record in the competition (excluding
appearances in the three finals) is:
P W D
L
F
A
Home:
57 27 13 17
83
61
Away:
62
9 20 33
45
91
Neutral
4
1
2
1
4
2
Total:
123 37 35 51 132 154
Only two players have ever
scored hat-tricks for Northern
Ireland in a World Cup
qualifying match. The first
to do so was Billy McAdams
whose treble came against
West Germany at Windsor
Park on 26 October 1960,
though the Germans eventually
ran out 4-3 winners. The other
came from Johnny Crossan,
who scored three in a 4-1
home success over Albania on
7 May 1965.
The last time Northern Ireland
scored a penalty in a World
Cup qualifier at Windsor Park
was on 3 September 2005
when Warren Feeney (pictured
having a debate with Italy star
Andrea Pirlo) converted from
the spot in the 84th minute in
a 2-0 win over Azerbaijan. That
is one of only nine penalties
that the team have scored in
qualifying matches. The full
list is:
Johnny Crossan
2
David Healy
2
Gerry Armstrong
1
Iain Dowie
1
Warren Feeney
1
Norman Lockhart
1
Sammy McIlroy
1
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