Football: Ten man Northern Ireland seal victory as Price strikes again

A superb Isaac Price finish saw Northern Ireland round off their final game before World Cup qualification begins with a hard-earned win over Iceland.

They had to do it with ten men for the bulk of the second half after Brodie Spencer was shown a straight red card for denial of a clear goalscoring opportunity. But that was one of the w negatives on the night.

The positives were another sumptuous strike from Price, a Northern Ireland debut for Ronan Hale and another assured performance between the posts for Pierce Charles.

O'Neill will know his side can play much better then this - and they will have to for the qualifiers - but he'll be happy in the knowledge that while not being at their best, it's a victory and a clean sheet.

It was something of a sluggish start for Northern Ireland, it has to be said. They failed to find their groove in the opening half an hour and were pinned back into their own half for most of that time.

O’Neill and Price had both said in Monday’s press conference about taking better care of the ball than they did in Saturday’s defeat in Denmark. However, it noticeable how many times they needlessly gave possession away in the first half.

A better level of opposition probably would have punished them but, as it was, Iceland only created one clear cut effort, midway through the half.

Jon Thorsteinsson outmuscled Trai Hume down the right to cut inside, but his curling effort was well wide of the post when the Hertha Berlin man would have expected to at least hit the target.

The hosts started to ease their way into the game just after the half hour mark.

They started to put some pressure on the visitors and created a decent chance when a neat pass from debutant Hale put Price in down the left. He centres for Conor Bradley, whose shot is well blocked.

That was on 32 minutes and it took just four minutes for the me in green to open the scoring – and it was a stunning finish from Price.

Hard work from Bradley and George Saville saw the ball fall to the West Brom man on the edge of the box and he curled home an inch-perfect low effort into the bottom right-hand corner.

If that was slightly against the run of the play, then a second definitely would have been, but it almost arrived with the last action of the half.

A quickly taken corner eventually found its way to the back post where Hale found himself unmarked. He was denied a dream debut when his first-time effort smacked off the crossbar, before Price put the rebound over.

O’Neill, clearly not happy with Northern Ireland’s propensity to give the ball away in the opening period, made a change at the break, bringing Ethan Galbraith on for Smyth.

Galbraith almost doubled the lead on 55 minutes when he glanced a header just wide from Shea Charles’ left-sided free-kick, then a minute later, Hale went inches away from opening his international account again.

The former Cliftonville man nipped in front of the Iceland keeper, but curled his low effort across goal and just out of the reach of Price.

Things then took a negative turn for Northern Ireland just 60 seconds after that as they were reduced to 10 men. Spencer was adjudged to have denied a clear goalscoring opportunity by fouling Iceland captain Hakon Haraldsson on the edge of the box.

On first viewing, it looked slightly soft, but Danish Referee Morten Krogh wasted little time in producing a red card for the Huddersfield Town man.

After a goalmouth scramble saw Northern Ireland survive a scare at one end, they could have made it 2-0 at the other on 70 minutes.

Hume whipped in a fine cross from the left, but his Sunderland club-mate Daniel Ballard headed well over when unmarked. That came just a couple of minutes after Ronan Hale came off to rapturous applause, with former Larne striker Lee Bonis taking his place, while Ruairi McConville replaced George Saville.

Pierce Charles made a supoerb reflex stop in injury time to deny Iceland a leveller and guarantee the win.

Now the real stuff begins, with September's opening World Cup qualifiers looming large on the horizon.

MATCH STATS

Northern Ireland: P Charles, Spencer, Ballard, Hume (C), Bradley (Devlin 90), Devenny, Saville (McConville 68), S Charles, Price (Lyons 90), Hale (Bonis 68), Smyth (Galbraith H-T)

Subs not used: Southwood (GK), McMullan (GK), Marshall, D Charles, Donley, McCann, Boyd-Munce, Donnelly, Taylor

Iceland: Valdimarsson, Palsson, Tomasson (Thordarson 86), Ingason, Gretarsson (Helgason 62), W Willumsson (Andersson 62), Traustason (Johannesson H-T), A Gudmundsson (S Magnusson 73), Thorsteinsson (Hlynsson 62), Gudjohnsen, Haraldsson (C)

Subs not used: Olafsson (GK), Einarsson (GK), Gunnarsson, Thorhallsson, H Magnusson, Ellertson

Referee: Morten Krogh (Denmark)

Attendance: 18,021