"all we can say is....arthur boruc....wat a player.northern irelands man of the match.he really was a tower of strength between them posts.come on the green an white army."

Says a lot about the talent of the Northern Ireland football team. Relying on mistakes by the other team! Suppose it makes a change from relying on the second rate striker David Healy!

Posted by Me | 01.04.09, 11:41 GMT

Having had a brief look at these comments, it reminds me of people who get in touch with the ' Daily Record ' regarding Glasgow football teams. You get the impression that they've never actually been to the game. I thought the ' Belfast Telegraph ' was better.

Posted by Michael | 01.04.09, 10:44 GMT

I Visited Krakow in Poland about 4 years ago and witnessed rival fans fight in the city centre on the day of the big derby match between the 2 local teams. The fact is that Poland has a football hooligan culture along with many other countries. The NI fans who reacted did exactly what those polish hooligans wanted.
There are many good NI fans who i know (I personally do not attend Windsor park as i find it sectarian) but like every country there are hooligans here and we would have more of this trouble if visiting teams brought more fans with them.
Remember, the last 2 times the Republic of Ireland played in Belfast it was deemed too dangerous for visiting fans to attend due to police intelligence.
Oh yes, i would like to tell 'Mickey' to he is not the ambassador for Ni fans, loyalists or Protestants - just a person with too much time on his hands

Posted by Ulsterman | 01.04.09, 10:07 GMT

stupid football !!!

Posted by tennis manic | 01.04.09, 07:10 GMT

London iron, I was just expressing my opinion, I thought we still had a right to do that. You sound as though you have major anger issues that go beyond this subject so I will not enter further into any postings or slanging matches with you.By the way I dont drink I am an educated woman who doesn't find the need to fight .

Posted by outside half | 31.03.09, 12:09 GMT

It's about time the two teams competed together like in the old days. zzzzz

Anyway for this to happen, the FAI needs to disband and return to the fold with the original IFA in Belfast. All matches need to be played in Belfast with Ireland's Call used as the anthem. Several bars of God Save the Queen should be played and the Union Flag should be flown. The tricolour could possibly fly also (all be it slightly lower than the Union Flag), although instead of the tricolour, maybe a flag featuring the four provinces. Perhaps the odd token game could take place in Dublin, which would have to be deemed an 'away' venue thus only Ireland's Call would be played)

Everyone tells us how it all works for the rugby. I'm sure the reverse would be ok for football, no?

Or, silly me, is it a United ireland football team, but with certain conditions?!

Posted by mickey | 31.03.09, 10:25 GMT

From the picture at the top of this article it is plainly obvious that all North of Ireland fans are peace loving and turn their backs on provocation always! Don't make me laugh!

Saturday night was caused by the mini iBrox appeal, and the Boruc RIP graffiti before the game in Central Belfast which alerted Polish hooligans to the fact that here was a location where they could reasonably expect to find willing rivals.

The FAI now needs to decide whether this sort of carry on is what they really want on the streets of Dublin and pull the plug on this silly four associations tournament.

Also a few years ago, FAI was censured by FIFA after a Rangers player was booed in Dublin. After Saturday, the IFA should at the very least be similarly censured for their fans treatment of Boruc.

To all those gloating over the result. its not hard to win a football game when the opposing goalkeeper is a nervous wreck due to death threats.

Posted by Tony | 31.03.09, 09:52 GMT

Yesterday I posted a message that included a comment about the moderation of this board and how people were allowed to call all NI fans bigots / sectarian. Funnily enough that part of my post was not posted. However the a quick read of these boards this morning show more of the same, more lies with nothing to back it up. Come on gearoid, Tony, Eddie & James - back up your statements with facts.

gearoid - It was Northern Ireland fans doing the anti-Catholic/anti-Pope chanting and singing
Tony - launch a full investigation into the sectarian abuse
Eddie - Same old bigotry, same old Windsor Park!
James - I also don't understand why Northern Ireland supporters boo the anthem of every country that plays at Windsor Park, that does not happen in most other countries.

Posted by NI Fan | 31.03.09, 09:33 GMT

sam wrote:
I think that ROI fans are just jealous that Northern Ireland are above them in FIFA's official rankings.

err, look again at the ratings mate!!

And maybe just try to imagine what a whole island squad could do! There are excellent players on both sides who will never be given a chance to show their true potential on the world stage.
My tip:
NI will miss the playoffs.
ROI will make the playoffs but get knocked out.
Both won´t make it to SA. Shame really.

Posted by robin | 31.03.09, 07:14 GMT

I'm Polish, and as far as the anti-Boruc behaviour goes I think he deserves all the stick he got from the NI fans (death threats excluded). He chose to make certain statements while at Celtic and now he is paying the price.

The fighting - Both sets of supporters have a small 'idiot' element as is always the case, and it would be very hard to ascertain exactly who caused the trouble. Poles may have started fighting at the pub before the game but were not the ones attacking the Police etc. Taking measures such as an earlier kick off time and exchange of intelligence betwen the NI and Polish Police would have reduced the risk of violence.

Those who who take retribution against Poles living in N. Ireland are absolutely wrong and there is no doubt about that. My advise to those people is to save their energy and buy tickets for the return fixture and start trouble there, see how that pans out for you.
And congratulations on the win.

Posted by Michal | 31.03.09, 04:19 GMT

"Why can't people just accept that some Polish fans went out to look for trouble?"

Because some Micro-Republicans have decided all NI fans are Protestants, and therefore bad. It is as simple as that. What worries me is that it's all too short a step from demonisation to murder in this country.

Posted by Steve | 30.03.09, 23:53 GMT

William, your comment is as obscure as you are obtuse!

Posted by patrick | 30.03.09, 23:39 GMT

Outside Half-Wit... Is that the same Cardiff city centre that is awash with vomit and urine like every other UK city each weekend? You should see it any other weekend when the "Great Police" are at 20 percent strength. Policing levels are never a problem when the eyes of the world are upon you.
Booing of national anthems is not a regular occurence at Windsor Park - something reserved for pro-nationalist communities e.g. the Welsh - reference Millenium Stadium September 2004 drowning out God Save the Queen.
You can always rely on the Rugger Chaps for an objective view...now off you go and down 35 pints/hour and don't have a fight...heroes.

Posted by London iron | 30.03.09, 23:19 GMT

.. i just can't understand why u are so shocked about what happened last saturday ..i could see that coming ..am polish myself ,came over in sep,2004 ..around the time when poland beat n.i 3:0 at winsdor park .. no trouble whatseva before ,during or after that game .. why ? the answer is plain obvious ..since then lots of the polish ppl have settled in this country .. and sum of 'em have been victims of racists attacks .. and it hasnt gone unnoticed by the polish living all over europe ..so last weekend it was just poles giving back what sum of us had got from your open minded society during the last few years ..smashed windows ,burned cars ,verbal abuse and so on .. and plz dont deny it comes as a shock 2 youe 2 hear that ...not only you can hate .. and there is a limit 2 one can take ...

Posted by remic | 30.03.09, 23:12 GMT

James I wish you would get your facts right, you state that NI supporters boo the anthem of every country that comes to WP.
Wrong, if you care to look at the tv footage from any of our home games you could hear a pin drop during the playing of the visitors anthem.

Posted by East Belfast | 30.03.09, 23:02 GMT

The whole issue was initially hyped up by Warren Feeney when he said that he wanted to make Windsor Park 'a little Ibrox' to annoy Artur Boruc. Then we had the death threats painted round the area about Boruc on Friday.

While there was certainly a hooligan element in The Polish support, it was not the Polish who hit the assistant referee with a missile.

I have heard a number of very reliable stories about Polish supporters with their children being attacked by Northern Ireland supporters on the Lisburn Road. Imagine the fear that causes a child - strange country, hostile men shouting abuse and attacking your father.

Its sick.

I also don't understand why Northern Ireland supporters boo the anthem of every country that plays at Windsor Park, that does not happen in most other countries.

Posted by james | 30.03.09, 22:30 GMT

I was in cardiff for the rugby last week, 110,000 people all in a small city centre, only 75,000 had tickets and the atmosphere was phenomenal.I have never experienced such warmth and hospitality, never mind the score , we all drank after the match into the early hours, the police were great , families all attended from greatgrandad to toddlers , we mixed with the local shoppers in the city centre, had heard about cardiff on international day but never thought it was true, think we can learn a lot.

Posted by outside half | 30.03.09, 22:28 GMT

Despite all the blinkered, politically prejudiced views this was a fantastic result. Consider that NI is drawing its team from one and three quarters of a million versus Poland's almost forty million.
OK, just had a second thought and it's an even better result as Tony Fearon always reminds us that only half the population are supporting NI football so it's slightly more than 0.8 million versus
40 million.
It's now an unimaginable result! Admit it Tony.

Posted by robbo | 30.03.09, 22:04 GMT

People from Belfast !!!, please don't behave like those hooligans from Poland . Don't blame Polish community in NI for troubles before and after football match. We are part of your community and we build your trust trough the years and now after one incident everything is ruined. Don't allow for this, because Belfast and Northern Ireland is our second home and we respect it honestly. If you want payback go to Poland and start fighting with the same hooligans. I know that is easier to kick asses Poles who lives over here especially women, kids and eldery people whose not even involved and could not protect themselves but it's barbarian behaviour. We have been living in XXI century!!! Grow up people and stop doing this mess. You don't even know how lucky you are that you live here.
I ask only for one thing ....
P- E -A- C- E

Posted by Magdalena | 30.03.09, 21:40 GMT

If people could look past the end of their noses they'd see what a wonderful job has been done by the IFA, stewards and the fans themselves in eradicating this disease from our game. Boruc was booed, same as goalkeepers for San Marino, Denmark, Sweden, Latvia, Spain... and guess what it worked, we won
On another point, the coin throwing incident, an absolute disgrace and why havent we seen it on the TV? pictures in the papers of the lout that threw it? because it was a child no older than 10 years old. Who pointed him out to the stewards? Who told the kids Father that it was a disgrace? the fans around him. I can guarantee that he'll not be doing that again.
Bring on Wednesday and all being well bring on SA!!!

Posted by Phil | 30.03.09, 21:23 GMT