Soccer: Williams laments woeful defending

Mark Williams claimed his first international goal counts for nothing because he feels so embarrassed by Northern Ireland's defending in their defeat against Bulgaria.

Northern Ireland's nightmare defensive display took away any joy Williams had felt after scoring in the World Cup qualifier.

The Wimbledon centre-half admitted all four of Bulgaria's goals could - and should - have been prevented.

"That was my first international goal, but it means nothing because we lost and because of the way we gave those goals away," he said.

"Of course I was delighted about scoring and that was a special moment for me.

"But at the end of the day I feel embarrassed about losing four goals.

"We let those goals in far too easily. We gave ourselves a mountain to climb and it was just really disappointing."

Williams' 15th-minute header briefly cancelled out Krassimir Balakov's opener on seven minutes, which had come from the penalty spot after Jim Magilton had given the ball away.

The Irish were on level terms for just two minutes before Martin Petrov capitalised on more slack Irish defending to restore Bulgaria's lead.

Irish goalkeeper Roy Carroll was at fault in the 72nd minute when he was beaten from 35 yards by a free-kick from Krassimir Tchomakov and then five minutes later the unmarked Petrov volleyed home goal number four.

Northern Ireland rallied and in the last seven minutes Stuart Elliott scored his first international goal before, in stoppage time, David Healy netted his sixth in 10 games from a penalty.

This stirring finale did not cheer Williams and he claims the whole team must defend better.

"A couple of the players have got to hold their hands up after that game because those were schoolboy errors, which we've got to eradicate," he said.

"We've got to stop making stupid mistakes and I don't just mean the defence, but the whole team.

"When we got it back to 1-1 we should have shut up shop for 10 minutes and kicked it out of the ground if we'd needed to.

"But instead we were trying to pass it in stupid areas and that was annoying.

"It wasn't like Bulgaria carved us up a couple of times and if they had scored great goals we could have said that was good play by them.

"But they didn't and the goals we gave away were ridiculous.

"When you score three goals away from home you would expect something and I just can't believe those four goals."

Defeat in the Balgarska Armia stadium extinguished Northern Ireland's faint hopes of qualifying for the 2002 Finals and they remain stuck on four points at the midway point of their Group Three campaign.

To complete Williams' woes his booking for a foul on Balakov, which led to Bulgaria's third goal, means he will be suspended for the return game on June 2.

"I'm really frustrated by that," he said. "I've worked hard to get back into the team and now I'll have to do it all again."

Williams will not be the only absentee from Windsor Park as Magilton and Steve Lomas expect to be missing.

Magilton is due to have an operation in May to cure circulation problems in his legs, while Lomas does not think he will play again this season because of ligament damage to his knee.