healyhattrick

Might be of interest to some.

Not the only one......George Best got sent off playing for Northern Ireland against Scotland in 1970....officially for dissent I.e. throwing muck at or in the direction of the referee. Wee bit before my time so not sure what prompted his reaction.

Since UEFA let us into that game against Serbia they appear to have taken a more hardline attitude. They locked man city, bayern, and Denmark (?) Fans out of games were they were innocent parties. If this is Georgia's first offence there shouldn't be a problem for yourselves. In October we were waiting on a similar decision for our game away in Romania after there were disturbances at the earlier Hungary v Romania game. Romania's punishment was monetary and also sections of the romanian end closed. As for the results of that outcome. ....it came about a week after its intended date. Montenegro on the other hand are in big trouble. ....feel sorry for Liechtenstein and Austria fans (Montenegro's next two home opponents) Believe this issue of punishing third parties was brought up by 'football supporters Europe' with their meeting with UEFA earlier this month. .....according to FSE there was a refusal of any movement on the issue by UEFA.

A good chunk of what might be our starting XI on Sunday not starting. ...can't say I'm too disappointed with that. I'll revise my prediction and say....4-0 Scotland.

I am of course talking about the away fans. Not sure of dates when UEFA changed their policy, however, in 2011 NI away fans were allowed access to the serbiavNI game. Fast forward to 2014 man city and Denmark have both been refused entry as away fans. A change of policy at UEFA which occured before the CSKA Moscow game. Take your point about home fans....at the behind closed doors Serbia v NI game there were a few hundred 'officals' supporting Serbia. The innocent away fans....man city, Denmark should not be getting punished for others indescretions. Not aware of Russia having to play games behind closed doors. Attendances at their home qualifiers would suggest no ban is in place.11, 000 for their game v liechtenstein, 42000 for their game v Moldova. Believe they have a suspended sentence re: points deduction which lasts till the end of this campaign and came about as a result of racist chanting by their fans at euro 2012 (iirc). With the trouble at the Romania v Hungary game last month ourselves and Finland were sweating a little as the outcome of their disciplinary hearing were released.

If what I'm hearing is true UEFA really are a shower of bunny rabits. Serbias punishment includes 2 games behind closed doors...the first of which is against Denmark in the coming days. Approx. 175 Danish fans who booked flights and hotels before the Serbia-Albania gane have been told they will not be allowed access to the game, despite appeals from the danish fa and fans groups. UEFA appear to be taking a more rigid stance on 'behind closed doors' games...as most folk are aware about 220 Norn Iron fans were allowed entry into a behind closed doors game a couple of years ago. The 'loophole' which permitted that has allegedly been closed. Hopefully commonsense comes good in the coming days.

Like your optimism. ...NI did of course qualify for the world cup finals in 1986. Will we qualify this time round? We've gone into that group as a pot 5 team in the draw. It will be a monumental achievement to qualify. All we've done so far is beat, what was on the night, quite a poor Hungary team. I wouldn't go to the games if I didn't think NI will qualify for a major tournament one day. We've made a decent start to this campaign. Fully expect our team to give their all and our fans will experience a roller coaster of a ride as always. We'll see where we're positioned in the group a year from now before getting too excited.

Didn't see any of the game, surely lots of positives to be taken from the game?.3 points dropped Unfortunately. 3 points that should be picked up later (assuming every other team loses to Germany away) Good to get Germany away ticked off nice and early.

A surprise? Played them twice last campaign. ... Probably should've beaten them away from home. At home. ..another couple of minutes in the first half and Ronaldo would've seen red...he had proper lost the plot. Fair play to the Portuguese staff, they calmed him down. ...second half, he completes a hatrick....Portugal won 4-2...and he got applauded when being substituted. We ended up with 9 men IIRC. Portugal do appear to be quite poor in qualifying but always do enough to get there.

Apologies for burst coupouns Let us savour the moment. ...seen some amount of dross over the last few years Never bet against NI (never bet for them either . Heard it here first. GAWA