Sanchez salutes as North grab rare win

Estonia 0 Northern Ireland 1

A superb goal from David Healy was enough to see his side home against Estonia in a friendly.

It was Northern Ireland's first victory in 16 games stretching back two years and five months to when Malta were defeated. Considering Estonia are 58 places above them in the world rankings and that Sanchez fielded a number of fringe players, it was a remarkable result.

It was only his second match in charge and came after a heavy defeat by Norway last month.

Sanchez said: "It is nice to win a football match again it has been a long time for us.

"Not only was it nice to win it was a great goal that sealed the victory in what was a good contest.

"It is my first win in charge and hopefully it is the first of many. It was hard work but very enjoyable."At the end we were on our uppers a little bit but defensively we were strong.

"Defensively we looked solid. In midfield we disrupted them and got about them. Up front the two players worked their socks off.

Only four players who started against Norway were in the team - goalkeeper Maik Taylor, Chris Baird, Healy and Andy Smith.

Sanchez said: "I gave people the opportunity to come in and one or two perhaps should be involved next time.

"I need to have a group of 24 players ready to go into the World Cup qualifiers," said Sanchez.

"The thing I tried to impress on the players was to be comfortable on the ball in their half.

"But I said to my staff if we didn't score we would get beaten. When a team dominate so much, the other side can break away and score.

ESTONIA: Kaalma, Jaager, Stepanov, Piiroja (Rahn 81), Klavan, Reim, Smirnov (Reinumae 85), Kristal, Zelinski (Teever 64), Meelis Rooba (Lindpere 73), Kink (Terehhov 71).

NORTHERN IRELAND: Taylor, Baird, Williams, Craigan, Capaldi, Jones (McCann 68), Whitley, Sonner (Duff 78), Mulryne, Healy, Smith.