Worthington seeking home comforts

NIGEL WORTHINGTON is hoping for a touch of home comforts on Wednesday when Northern Ireland aim to get their World Cup qualifying campaign up and running.

The province face the highly-rated Czech Republic on the back of a 2-1 defeat by Slovakia in Bratislava.

Worthington is backing his side to bounce back as long as they eliminate the mistakes that cost them dear on Saturday.

Northern Ireland were undone by two set-pieces with Martin Skrtel and Marek Hamsik scoring in the 46th and 70th minutes

They pulled a goal back with nine minutes to go when Jan Durica steered the ball into his own net but that was as good as it got despite a frantic finale.

“We always seem to make the job hard for ourselves,” said Northern Ireland boss Worthington.

“Now we have got to do it again. The Czechs are a very good team and we have a job on our hands but the crowd will be on our side.

“We know we will have to put in a performance if we are to get a good result from this match.”

Despite the loss, Northern Ireland will go into the game with confidence having put England, Spain and Sweden to the sword in Belfast in competitive matches.

Skipper Aaron Hughes said: “We have shown in previous campaigns that at home we are good enough to play against the best.

“With the crowd behind us we have had some good nights at Windsor and hopefully there will be a few more.”

Northern Ireland almost salvaged something from the match against Slovakia only for goalkeeper Stefan Senecky to make two superb saves in the dying moments.

Substitute Warren Feeney almost equalised on the stroke of full time only for Senecky to claw the shot over the bar.

Then he made another breathtaking stop, smothering George McCartney’s effort.

“That was more like us in the last 15-20 minutes. We had them on the back foot and they seemed to have gone a bit,” Worthington added.

“However the goalkeeper made two glorious saves and the overall feeling is one of frustration.

“It is a game we should have got something from but through ill-discipline on set plays we have paid a heavy price and lost the game.

“That is the frustrating thing. To concede two goals like we did is very disappointing.”

SLOVAKIA: Senecky, Durica, Skrtel, Pekarik, Martin Petras, Karhan (Zabavnik 74), Kozak, Jakubko (Svento 59), Hamsik, Sapara, Vittek (Mintal 84).

NORTHERN IRELAND: Taylor, Baird (Shiels 78), Hughes, Craigan, McCartney, Evans, Davis, Gillespie (Feeney 53), Clingan, Paterson (Brunt 66), Healy.

Referee: Nikolai Ivanov (Russia).