Sanchez pleased with progress

Northern Ireland manager Lawrie Sanchez believes his team are on an upward curve.

He was delighted at the way his side battled back tonight to force a 1-1 draw against Serbia and Montenegro at Windsor Park.

Northern Ireland got off to a poor start with Veljko Paunovic opening the scoring but the home side responded and James Quinn marked his comeback by scoring the equaliser following a cross from David Healy.

The draw followed a victory in Estonia, the Province’s first win in 15 matches.

Sanchez said: “We are improving all the time. We did well in Estonia and did well again tonight.

“We have taken on a team ranked 44th in the world, who have beaten Wales and they have been running down the clock.

“That’s the difference from three months ago when we were losing 3-0 at half-time to Norway.”

Sanchez praised his players for the way they got back into the game.

“It was a poor start and we deserved to be one down,” he said.

“We got back into it and it was a good goal and it came about from two good players.

“Having strutted their stuff in the first 20 minutes, Serbia were rocking and in the second half I thought we were the better team.”

The game threatened to take a nasty turn in the latter stages which saw five players booked.

But Sanchez said: “Having a physical presence is part of football. We got closer to them and closed them down, which upset us.”

Sub Gary Hamilton could have won it in stoppage time but he saw his shot saved by the legs of goalkeeper Zoran Banovic.

It was the Portadown striker’s second appearance and Sanchez said: “He showed what he can do.

“It would have been nice if he could have got the goal but he is a quality finisher as he has shown in the Irish league.”