7 September 2005, Windsor Park, Belfast. Northern Ireland 1–0 England.
By Hamish McTavish
A Wednesday in Belfast, Windsor Park tight and loud, and a golden generation sent to collect three points from the 116th team in the world. Sven-Göran Eriksson had recalled Michael Owen. Wayne Rooney started. David Beckham had the armband. Steven Gerrard, Frank Lampard, Ashley Cole, Rio Ferdinand, John Terry, Paul Robinson. Lawrie Sanchez had David Healy of Leeds and a side that, Healy said later, had six or seven believers before kick-off and a whole dressing room of them by half-time. England had just beaten Wales 1–0 in a shape nobody liked and, four days earlier, had been beaten 4–1 in a friendly in Copenhagen. This was supposed to be the one that put the week back in the box. A qualifier. Three points. We should win games like this.
Eriksson went 4-3-3. Almost all of them, he said after, were in the positions they played for their clubs, so it could not be the formation. The travelling end had paid the money and come for a stamp on a passport. Northern Ireland had not beaten England since 1972, and not in Belfast since 1927. James Quinn ran through Cole in the first minutes and the home end decided it was allowed to believe. The English week had not spent much time on that possibility. It had spent the time on October, and Austria, and the idea that qualification was still in their hands, which it was, and would remain in their hands even after they had thrown the night away.
Windsor is a ground that holds a night close. The home end had come for a miracle they had not been allowed in fifty years. The travelling end had come for a midweek stamp. David Healy, later, said that when he scored he knew they were not going to get beaten; it was only a question of holding on. Sanchez, if he said anything in the dressing room after, Healy imagined it was I told you so. England had the opposite feeling, the one that arrives when a favourite realises the errand can stand up. The golden generation had the names on the sheet and not the noise in the stands.
They kicked off anyway.
The first thirty-five minutes, Eriksson said, were patience and control and half-chances. Then they lost the patience and the spirit and did not find either again. Rooney, before the interval, collected a yellow that would rule him out of the next one and a reputation for the night as the boy who lost his temper because the game would not come to him. England had the names and not the shot. Gerrard and Lampard were off the pace and would be taken off, which is not a sentence you want to write about a golden midfield in Belfast. Northern Ireland held their own after the break the way a side holds its own when it has decided the favourite is there to be got.
Seventy-one minutes, a scare: Healy’s cross off Jamie Carragher, Robinson diving at Quinn’s feet. Two minutes later Steven Davis slipped Healy in, the offside trap opened, and Healy hit it high across Robinson into the top corner. Windsor Park came up as if 1927 had just walked in. Healy felt sick with the adrenaline and later said he was praying Sanchez would take him off because he did not have another run in him. Eriksson sent Jermain Defoe on for Gerrard. Warren Feeney, on as a sub, nearly made it two. It stayed 1–0. First win against England in thirty-three years. First defeat in a qualifier on Eriksson’s watch. Sack the Swede, from the travelling end, for the first time. He said that was understandable.
It is my worst experience as England manager, because we shouldn’t lose, we shouldn’t even draw to Northern Ireland. I am very sorry, for the team, for the three points lost, and sorry for the fans who have spent a lot of money to watch us. I am not going to resign. I am going to try to make it right in October. Win two games and we qualify. The Independent did not wait for October. Pathetic England plumb new depths in Eriksson’s self-inflicted shambles. The Northern Echo had Shambolic England are stunned by Healy strike. Beckham said they had confidence in the manager. The end had already given its verdict.
Healy had the finish and a life-changing night he still will not give back. Davis had the pass. Sanchez had a dressing room that had started at six believers and ended with a win. Robinson had the top corner and the dive at Quinn. Rooney had the yellow and the strop. Gerrard and Lampard had the walks. Owen had the recall and not the goal. Cole had Quinn in the first minutes. Eriksson had the formation that was not the problem, the spirit that went missing, and a chorus he could not argue with. I can’t argue with that, he said, about being sacked in the mouths of his own. Whether it was justified was up to the FA. The FA left him. The night did not.
The morning would not be about October. It would be about a Leeds striker and a Swede who would not go, and a golden generation that had just lost a qualifier to a side they had ranked as weather. Healy still calls it life-changing. England still file it under Belfast, as if the city were the excuse.
They said we should win games like this. They said we shouldn’t even draw. They said it was still in our hands. They said sack the Swede, and he said he understood. If you still think it was only Belfast, a funeral is only a Tuesday. Belfast was a qualifier. Healy was on the books at Leeds. The golden generation lost to a side they had ranked as an errand.
The film is the BBC’s night from Windsor, Healy across Robinson, the ground going up. Do not review it. Watch the errand get up off the floor.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport2/hi/football/internationals/4212920.stm
Related reading
- At least there's no more Sven — Gelsenkirchen 2006, the last Eriksson night in a shirt
- A cross that drifted — Shizuoka 2002, another golden-generation certainty that went soft
If the nights sit right, the shirts and the wall are at /shop.
FAQ
What was the score when Northern Ireland beat England in 2005?
Northern Ireland 1–0 England, on 7 September 2005 at Windsor Park, Belfast. David Healy scored the only goal.
Why “We shouldn't even draw”?
Eriksson’s own line after the defeat — we shouldn’t lose, we shouldn’t even draw to Northern Ireland — his worst experience as England manager.
Had Northern Ireland beaten England recently before this?
No. First win against England in thirty-three years; first in Belfast since 1927. First qualifier defeat on Eriksson’s watch.