Sir David of Healy

Whilst England were crashing out of the Euros in abject manner, our own David Healy was setting a new European qualifying goalscoring record for Northern Ireland. His 13 goals in this campaign eclipsing Davor Suker’s previous record of 12 goals in 1996. There’s a great piece about "the greatest striker in Europe" on this blog which emphasises the pride all NI fans must be feeling about the performance of their national side. NI really showed what you can achieve if all your players know the role they have to play and do so with passion and commitment. England could certainly learn a lot from watching their last two games.

Bizarrely my disappointment over England this week has made me feel more positive about Fulham and Sanchez’ ability to get us moving in the right direction again. In Healy we clearly have someone capable of scoring goals and if anyone can find the way to get the best out of him it must be Lawrie Sanchez. Healy’s scoring record at International level (33 goals in 62 games) has always been greater than his achievements at club level, but I believe once we have found the right partner for him (either McBride if he successfully recovers from injury or a new signing in January) we will start to see the best of him.

Just found this staggering stat on the UEFA website. Healy almost outscored Holland who only scored 15 goals in their route to qualification despite a tally of 79 shots on target which was more than any other nation.

Fulham Northern Ireland

In a more positive frame of mind than yesterday's post.

New Fulham cult hero David Healy scored twice tonight to help Northern Ireland to a 3-1 win over Liechtenstein. That takes Healy's unofficial* total to 5 goals in 4 games. Chris Baird captained the side that also featured Steven Davis and, possible Fulham target, Kyle Lafferty who scored the third goal. Northern Ireland are now second in their group.

In other International news Simon Davies played in Wales' 1-0 victory in Bulgaria. Papa Bouba Diop made his presence felt, particularly on Michael Essien, at The New Den where Senegal and Ghana fought out a 1-1 draw. Adrian Leijer helped the Australian U23 side to a 0-0 draw with Iraq in their attempt to qualify for the Olympic Games and Ricardo Batista kept goal for the Portugese U21 side that beat Malta 3-0.

Carlos Bocanegra and Clint Dempsey both featured in the U.S.A's 1-0 loss in Sweden. Clint Dempsey nearly scored for the Americans firing a low shot from inside the penalty area that goalkeeper Rami Shaaban barely got his gloves on.

Meanwhile during the England v Germany friendly at the new Wembley, both Paul Robinson and Jens Lehmann did their best to make Tony Warner feel a whole lot better about himself.

* Healy's unofficial total includes "the goal that should have been" against Middlesbrough.