Northern Ireland v New Zealand Match Programme

The 47 goals Northern Ireland have scored during Michael O’Neill’s reign as boss have been spread among no fewer than 16 players. Leading the way is, of course, Kyle Lafferty with a very healthy 12 goals. The full list is: Kyle Lafferty 12 in 30 games Gareth McAuley 7 in 36 Steven Davis 5 in 42 Jamie Ward 4 in 29 Niall McGinn 3 in 34 Martin Paterson 3 in 10 Conor Washington 3 in 10 Craig Cathcart 2 in 24 David Healy 1 in 4 Dean Shiels 1 in 5 Will Grigg 1 in 10 Stuart Dallas 1 in 19 Chris Brunt 1 in 21 Conor McLaughlin 1 in 23 Josh Magennis 1 in 24 Shane Ferguson 1 in 29

Northern Ireland have only previously played one game on home soil on 2 June which was back in 2001 when Bulgaria were the visitors to Belfast for a World Cup qualifying game. Unfortunately they

left Windsor Park with a 1-0 victory thanks to a second half goal from Georgi Ivanov.

Kyle Lafferty became the 27th substitute to come on and score in an international match for Northern Ireland when he found the net twice in the 4-0 victory over San Marino at the National Stadium last October. He [EW LS[IZIV XLI ƤVWX ever substitute to score twice in the same match.

Thirteen of Kyle Lafferty’s 20 international goals for his country have been scored at Windsor Park, with 10 of them notched in front of the GAWA seated at the Kop/ West end of the stadium. Perhaps surprisingly only one has been a header, which came in the 2-1 Euro 2016 success over Finland in March 2015.

Skipper Steven Davis has played in 42 of Michael O’Neill’s 45 games in charge of Northern Ireland, more than any other player. The Southampton QMHƤIPHIV LEW WXEVXIH SJ XLSWI QEXGLIW ERH has come on as a substitute twice. In total he LEW TPE]IH QMRYXIW ERH WGSVIH ƤZI KSEPW four of them at the National Football Stadium at Windsor Park.

Striker Liam Boyce scored more domestic goals than any other Northern Ireland player in England and Scotland during 2016-17. His tally of 23 in the Scottish Premiership (24 in all competitions) made him the league’s leading scorer, two ahead of Celtic’s Scott Sinclair.

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