Steven Beacom: More than Georgia on their minds

International

Wednesday, March 26, 2008

I've never been a big fan of international friendlies.

Yes, I know that they act as preparation for much more important qualifying matches and I'm sure Northern Ireland manager Nigel Worthington will find some value in tonight's clash at home to Georgia.

Then you have the players. For them it is another opportunity to represent their country and earn a further cap which they can look back on with pride when they have a grandchild on their knee and slippers on their feet instead of boots.

David Beckham will certainly appreciate England's friendly in France as it will provide him with his 100th international appearance.

The thing is though in Paris, just like in Belfast, there will be no points at stake, so while obviously everyone involved in these games and others this evening will do all they can to win, it won't really matter if they don't.

For my money, the Northern Ireland supporters are the best in international football, but even they find it difficult to have the same enthusiasm for friendlies as they would have for competitive fixtures.

For instance, compare the atmosphere when Bulgaria were here last month to the Euro 2008 qualifiers against the likes of Spain, Latvia, Sweden and Denmark.

It doesn't help that Northern Ireland's recent record in friendlies is at best average.

But hey, I'm more than happy if that continues as long as our boys continue to deliver the goods, as they have been doing, when it counts.

Such is the honesty of those in Worthington's squad, I'm sure they will give it their all against Georgia in what will be their last game of a memorable season at Windsor, though for their own individual careers and indeed for the good of the Northern Ireland side as a whole, it won't be the most important match they will play in the coming months.

We need as many of our stars playing in the Premier League in England and several of them have a massive fight on their hands to safeguard that top flight status.

Fulham's Aaron Hughes, David Healy and Chris Baird are up against it and the same goes for Birmingham City's Maik Taylor and Damien Johnson, while Jonny Evans, on loan and impressing at Sunderland, is also in the relegation battle.

In my book all six are capable of playing in the top division and I'd like to see them stay there.

No disrespect to Bolton and Wigan, but for the sake of the Northern Ireland lads, I hope they go down along with Derby County, who are already doomed, despite Roy Carroll's best efforts.

It's not just Premiership survival at stake for Worthington's players - Leicester's Gareth McAuley is playing his heart out to keep the Foxes in the Championship.

On the up side Warren Feeney (Cardiff), Keith Gillespie (Sheffield United) and Kyle Lafferty (Burnley) are aiming to make the Championship play-offs.

Our League One players also have big weeks ahead of them. Stuart Elliott (on loan at Doncaster) has his sights on promotion while new kid on the block Michael O'Connor is desperately trying to keep Crewe up.

Move over to Scotland and Stephen Craigan is trying to steer Motherwell to a rare European spot while Steve Davis could end up with FOUR trophies at Rangers if the Teddy Bears play their cards right.

If Davis and the Gers pull that clean sweep off, and I wouldn't put it past them, surely it will go down as the greatest loan move ever.

And that leaves the Linfield trio, Alan Mannus, Michael Gault and Peter Thompson, who know all about clean sweeps.

They are in with a brilliant chance of adding the Irish League title and Irish Cup to the CIS Cup, already won this season. Indeed they had to leave the international squad yesterday to play for the Blues in a crucial league game at Coleraine.

Every Linfield supporter, and there are thousands of them out there, are also big Northern Ireland followers.

If you said to them on Monday they could only celebrate one win this week, I imagine it would have been at Coleraine yesterday rather than at Windsor Park tonight.

That's friendlies at this crucial stage of the season for you.