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Welcome to the official.....

"United States Northern Ireland Supporters Club"

If you have any questions regarding the U.S.N.I.S.C. please contact: AlanMegahey@USNISC.com

LATEST GAWA NEWS

Northern Ireland 4-1 Georgia (Tuesday, 25 March 2008)

David Healy comes under pressure from Georgia's Levan Tskitishvili
A Kyle Lafferty double helped Northern Ireland to a comfortable friendly win at Windsor Park on Wednesday night.

The Burnley striker slotted in from a Steven Davis pass before David Healy's deflected shot made it 2-0.

Lafferty headed in his second on 36 minutes but Georgia pulled one back through Healy's
own-goal after Maik Taylor pushed a penalty onto a post.

Linfield forward Peter Thompson scored his first NI goal with a close-range finish three minutes from time.

There was a memorable moment just before kick-off when Uefa president Michel Platini presented Healy with a special award for scoring a record 13 goals during the Euro 2008 qualifiers.

The Fulham striker went close four times before playing a part in the 25th minute opener.

Healy pounced on a mistake and pushed the ball forward for Davis, whose perfect pass left Lafferty to provide the side-foot finish from 12 yards.

Healy doubled the lead seven minutes later when he drove forward before unleashing which defected off AC Milan defender Kakha Kaladze and past keeper Georgi Makaridze.

Nigel Worthington's team struck again on 36 minutes with Lafferty getting in front of his marker to powerfully head in from Healy's pinpoint cross.

Worthington made two half-time changes with Crewe's Michael O'Connor coming on for his debut in place of Damien Johnson and Lafferty making way for Warren Feeney.

But O'Connor made a nightmare start to his senior international career when he handled a 55th cross to concede a penalty.

Taylor pushed Levan Tskitishvili's spot-kick onto a post but Healy slid the ball into his own net as he came in to clear the rebound.

Linfield midfielder Michael Gault became the second Northern Ireland debutant as he and clubmate Thompson came on for Healy and Davis on 70 minutes.

Georgia fashioned two good chances with Taylor saving from Alexandre Iashvili and Levan Kenia strikes.

Alan Mannus replaced Taylor with 10 minutes left to make it a trio of players from Irish League side Linfield on the pitch.

Thompson got the final touch from an Aaron Hughes header to take the ball over the line and complete the scoring on 87 minutes.

The Linfield man became the first Irish League player since 1984 to score for Northern Ireland - the last was Lee Doherty, who also played for the Belfast club.

BBC Sport Player Rater man of the match: Northern Ireland's Kyle Lafferty 8.83 (on 90 minutes).

Northern Ireland: Taylor, Baird, Hughes, Craigan, Evans, Gillespie, Johnson, Davis, Elliott, Healy, Lafferty.
Georgia: Makaridze, Salukvadze, Kaladze, Kenia, Shashiashvili, Kobiashvili, Tskitishvili, Kankava, Kvakhadze, Kvirkvelia, Iashvili.

NI pair winning fitness battles (Tuesday, 25 March 2008)

Northern Ireland v Georgia
Date: Wednesday, 26 March
Kick-off: 1945 GMT
Venue: Windsor Park, Belfast
BBC coverage: Live on BBC2 NI, BBC Radio Ulster (MW only 1341 & 873 AM) and BBC Sport website
Kyle Lafferty and Gareth McAuley are winning their fitness battles ahead of Northern Ireland's friendly against Georgia on Wednesday.

Both Lafferty and McAuley have been carrying knocks but the two men trained on Tuesday and boss Nigel Worthington expects the duo to be available.

Worthington has confirmed that Linfield players Alan Mannus, Peter Thompson and Michael Gault will not start.

The Linfield trio are on club duty in a Carnegie Irish League game on Tuesday.

Gault has been included in the Northern Ireland squad for the first time.

And with Warren Feeney only recently having returned to club action after injury, Lafferty is expected to partner David Healy in attack.

Four players withdrew from the original Northern Ireland squad for the game.

Winger Brunt has been struggling with a hamstring injury and Derby goalkeeper Roy Carroll is out after suffering a recurrence of a groin strain.

Striker Martin Paterson is in hospital with gastroenteritis and Sammy Clingan is on club duty with Nottingham Forest this week.

Platini to honour Healy heroics (Tuesday, 25 March 2008)

Gillespie to keep going with NI (Tuesday, 25 March 2008)

Northern Ireland winger Keith Gillespie says he still sees a long-term future for himself in international football at the age of 33.

Gillespie will win his 81st cap in Wednesday's friendly against Georgia.

"I'll keep going as long as I can and I'm looking forward to the World Cup qualifying campaign," he said.

"Some people are saying it could be my last campaign but I still feel very fit and I keep myself in shape so who knows how long I've got."
The Sheffield United player believes home advantage will give Northern Ireland the edge over the Georgians.

He added: "I don't really know much about Georgia but I watched them against Scotland in the Euro 2008 qualifiers and technically they are very good.

"However, we feel we can beat anyone at Windsor Park and hopefully we can get a result on Wednesday.

"The last friendly against Bulgaria was disappointing but the good thing was that there were no points at stake."

Scots and NI to meet in friendly (Monday, 24 March 2008)

Scotland will take on Northern Ireland in a friendly at Hampden Park in Glasgow on Wednesday, 20 August.
It will be the final warm-up game for both sides before they start their 2010 World Cup qualifying campaigns.

The fixture was originally pencilled in for May but it is believed Northern Ireland manager Nigel Worthington wanted the later date.

Worthington has also confirmed that NI will have no friendly in May unless "major" opposition can be secured.

Scotland and Northern Ireland last met in 1992 with the Scots enjoying a 1-0 victory in a Hampden Park friendly.

"It's an ideal time for a friendly because the players will be fresh after their pre-season," added Worthington.

"It will be a friendly with an edge as it's a British Championship type game."

Four players pull out of NI squad (Sunday, 23 March 2008)

Four players have withdrawn from the Northern Ireland squad to face Georgia in Wednesday night's friendly game at Windsor Park.
Winger Chris Brunt has been struggling with a hamstring injury and Derby goalkeeper Roy Carroll has suffered a recurrence of a groin strain.

Striker Martin Paterson is in hospital with gastroenteritis and Sammy Clingan is on club duty with Nottingham Forest.

Gareth McAuley is also rated doubtful and Kyle Lafferty is an injury worry.

Leicester defender McAuley is carrying an injury but has told manager Nigel Worthington that he will report for duty and see if the problem improves.

Burnley striker Lafferty limped off with a thigh injury on Saturday and Hibernian striker Dean Shiels may be called up to join the panel.

Clingan's club have fixtures on Monday and Friday as they seek promotion from League One.

Carroll had returned to the squad after a period of self-imposed international exile and was part of a 22-man panel named by Nigel Worthington last Monday.

In addition to these worries, Worthington must hope that Linfield trio Alan Mannus, Michael Gault and Peter Thompson come through Tuesday's league game against Coleraine unscathed.

N Ireland squad: Taylor (Birmingham City), Mannus (Linfield), Baird (Fulham), Hughes (Fulham), Craigan (Motherwell), McAuley (Leicester City), McCartney (West Ham), Evans (Manchester Utd, on loan at Sunderland), Davis (Fulham, on loan at Rangers), Johnson (Birmingham City), Gillespie (Sheffield Utd), O'Connor (Crewe Alexandra), Elliott (Hull City, on loan at Doncaster Rovers), Gault (Linfield), Healy (Fulham), Lafferty (Burnley), Thompson (Linfield), Feeney (Cardiff City).

Spain FA Secision Dashes NI hopes (Tuesday, 4 March 2008)

Northern Ireland's very slim hopes of replacing Spain in this summer's Euro 2008 finals appear to be dashed.

Uefa warned Spain they could be thrown out of the Championships if their government attempted to interfere in the Spanish FA's presidential election.

However, the Spanish FA voted on Monday to ignore any advice from their government and will proceed with their election as originally planned.

Spain topped their qualifying group for the Championship with NI in third.

Luis Aragonés side along with second-placed Sweden qualified for this summer's finals in Austria and Switzerland from Group F, with Nigel Worthington's side missing out.

Wells Says More Revenue Is Needed (Thursday, 7 February 2008)

IFA chief executive Howard Wells has told Northern Ireland fans that "much higher levels of income" are needed to fulfil the body's new Five-Year Plan.

"The facts are that without a new stadium, or the ability to generate more revenue, the IFA will struggle in future years to maintain its position.

"Without the ability to sell more tickets for international games the IFA five-year plan will come to nothing.

"A new stadium, or a much improved one, is vital to this," said Wells.

The chief executive observed in the match programme for Wednesday's friendly match with Bulgaria that he had been "accused of over-egging the arguments for a new stadium".

"Without a new stadium or a much improved one, the future for football here is gloomy," he insisted.

"The £8 million allocated from Government to improve the running of football will be wasted if there is little chance of the IFA being able to reinvest into the local game in the long term.

"That can only be achieved through much higher levels of income.

"Our marketing efforts have been encouraging and the new revenues derived will help but we must be in a position to sell more tickets.

"Some supporters are unhappy about ticket prices and I have sympathy for that argument but the reality is that budgets have to be balanced and until we can sell more tickets, we are limited in terms of prices that we charge.

"At the moment we sell about 50,000 home tickets per season, a figure that some Premiership clubs in England achieve every week.

"This is the major challenge for the IFA and Government to address and until we do our new Five-Year Plan, 'More than 90 minutes', will prove little more than a few fine words."

The Healing Power of Football (From Stevo In New Orleans)

I was in Valencia when we beat Spain. I was at Windsor to see us defeat Israel to qualify for the World Cup. I saw Ian Stewart's winner against Germany in 1982, I was in Bucharest for the victory over Romania in 1985, and I was at Wembley when we qualified for the Mexico World Cup.

And I was in Las Vegas for last week's victory over England.

It followed the worst seven days of our lives. As Katrina took aim, we fled New Orleans at the last minute with little more than the clothes on our backs, battling to stay ahead of the storm on a frightening rollercoaster of a journey. Our adopted city was battered by the winds, drowned by the flood waters, burned by the fires. The remnants then self-destructed in an orgy of looting and lawlessness. A week after evacuating to California, we still didn't know what we had left to return to, or — more importantly — what had happened to friends who chose to stay behind.

After becoming increasingly depressed by the non-stop TV news coverage, we took a road trip to the near-deserted desert states of Utah and Arizona. But after a 1,400-mile loop, we were within an hour of Las Vegas and thoughts turned to the game. It was on in an English bar miles from the glitzy strip and I followed a fleet of taxis crammed with tourists to the remote British outpost near the airport. Despite arriving at 11 a.m. - almost an hour before kick-off - it was so busy staff were outside directing traffic away from the congestion.

The cover charge was $20 cash. I had $21 left after our journey.
In America, pubs order a season-long package of live games and you can either pay an entrance fee for individual matches or buy a season ticket for unlimited access. This is what I had done in New Orleans for Finn McCool's, our friendly football venue run by Lurgan couple Stephen and Pauline Patterson. The night before, American bar staff had insisted on giving us free drinks and tee-shirts when they heard we were evacuees, but when I approached the English girl on the door and showed her my New Orleans driving license and asked could she waive the charge as I had already bought a season pass, she dismissed the request with a shake of her head.

At Finn McCool’s in New Orleans, we had been talking about this game for months. I had flown back for the Old Trafford match and had taken a load of stick from some of the English patrons.
I had been eagerly anticipating some good-natured banter with the close-knit group of ex-pats. Many had booked the day off work so we could watch it live on a sultry Louisiana Wednesday afternoon. My father had even sent me a brand new Northern Ireland top to wear. But instead my small frame was engulfed by an XXL tee-shirt donated by my 6-foot, 6-inch friend Gordon Sheals. I was marooned 1,800 miles away in an ocean of English strangers with my friends scattered to the four corners of the United States.

Inside was a heaving mass of red and white. Conference attendees from Liverpool, gamblers from Bristol and families from Sunderland mobbed the bar and shouted orders at the swamped barmaid. I corkscrewed my way though a 300-strong crowd to a spot in front of the big screen — with just a single dollar in my wallet. I didn't need to fight my way back to the bar. The Londoner on my right asked me to watch his Prada carrier bag while he went to the bathroom. The Brummie on my left told his mate,: "I don't know any of their team. We'll murder this lot. Easy.
" The first chant of "Inger-lund" started up.

My phone rang and it was Dave Ashton from Manchester, a physiotherapist who had stayed in New Orleans treating patients right up until the hurricane hit. His pregnant girlfriend's mother died in the evacuation and they had escaped on a camping trip to New Mexico. He told me to call him with the result.

Forty-five minutes flew by and at half-time I spotted a sliver of green elbow his way to the bar. Samuel Gunnion, 22, is a forklift driver from Newtownards who moved to Vegas four years ago.
I waved him over and he said, "We're doing great, mate, we could nick this you know." I gave him the patronizing smile his youthful confidence deserved and told him that we'd tire and then the English quality would show.

But as the game wore on, I started to believe, as well. Then King David struck that shot just as sweetly as Gerry had done 23 years before.
For a heartbeat, the bar fell silent. You would have heard David Beckham's diamond earring drop.

Then Sam and I went nuts.

Real, honest-to-goodness, jumping-up-and-punching-the-air, stepping-on-people's-toes, careening-into-everyone-while-yelling-at-the-top-of-our-voices and hugging-each-other-as-we-screamed hysterically nuts. I have watched football matches for nearly 30 years on all six inhabited continents. Never have I had such an outpouring of emotion after a goal.

My head spun like a roulette wheel as the mood around us darkened from mild anxiety to deep frustration. English fans kicked the ground and slammed down pints as the mood turned menacing. "Do you want a drink, mucker?" asked Sam.

"There's five minutes left - don't risk going to the bar," I replied, not wanting him to miss anything but also keen not to be left alone.

"I can't take the tension — I need a drink," he said and disappeared, thankfully returning swiftly as space opened up around us. Three Lions supporters melted away. Whether it was because they thought there would be glasses flying through the air in our direction, or whether they just didn't want to stand beside the only two people in the packed pub cheering on the boys in green, we'll never know.

When the sign went up for four minutes of injury time, we roared insults at the screen but they were lost in the increasingly-desperate howling from the English. But finally, beautifully, it was all over. Northern Ireland supporters know some of our results in the last few years have been enough to bring tears to your eyes. But 1982 was the last time I was so proud of a performance it made me cry.

My first thought was for my old school friend Gordon, a fanatical Northern Ireland fan, who had come to our rescue the week before. He had arranged our flight from Texas, lent us clothes and a car and opened his home to us. He and his wife, Dawn, had made a last minute 12,000-mile dash from California just for the match, and I imagined him smiling now in the North Stand. Sometimes good things do happen to good people.

The Englishmen around us grabbed our shoulders, but they only wanted to shake our hands and offer congratulations. One looked me dead in the eye and said: "Well done. Northern Ireland deserved it." And we did. Sam and I hugged and I told him to come and visit when New Orleans is rebuilt. Two exiled, out-numbered Ulstermen who came together on the edge of the Nevada desert and will forever share the memory of the day we defeated England.

We blinked our way into the blazing sun and 110-degree heat. After four days in the hot arid climate after living in humid Louisiana my lips were cracked and bleeding, my head was throbbing from the excitement and my throat was hoarse from a mixture of the desert wind and shouting during the match. But I looked at the sullen faces of the pasty-skinned English fans in the taxi queue snaking its red-and-white way around the bar, and for the first time since Katrina hit, I felt great.

Until my dying day I'll remember being in Valencia the night we beat Spain in 1982. And I'll always remember being in Las Vegas the morning we beat England in 2005.

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