Northern Ireland 1 - 0 Latvia

Northern Ireland continued their fine form with a 1-0 victory over Latvia.

Following recent results against Spain and Denmark, Northern Ireland went into the game as firm favourites and they did not disappoint with a dominant performance.

David Healy scored the crucial goal, to keep Northern Ireland joint second in Group F and in contention for Euro 2008 qualification.

There was an electric atmosphere at Windsor Park and Lawrie Sanchez's side fed off the crowd as they started in confident fashion.

The midfield quickly gained a stranglehold on the game and pressed Latvia deep into their own half.

Keeping possession impressively and working even harder whenever they lost the ball, it was not long before the first chance arrived for the home side.

Striker Kyle Lafferty was presented with the opportunity, but he failed to get a head to Damien Johnson's inviting cross when even the slightest of contact would probably have taken it past keeper Alexanders Kolinko and into the net.

Latvia showed little sign of forward ambition in the early stages but were at least successful in restricting Northern Ireland's chances until Healy conjured a goal out of nothing after 35 minutes.

Cleverly flicking Keith Gillespie's pass over Maris Smirnovs, Healy sprinted on to catch up with the ball down the right wing. Kolinko crazily rushed off his line to pressurise the Leeds man even though there was defensive cover, and Healy took advantage to slot coolly home through the stranded keeper's legs.

Lafferty nearly added a second before half time with a curling shot wide from close range, as Latvia escaped from the opening 45 minutes still very much in the game.

As the second half got underway the Baltic side finally provided some evidence of how they managed to thrash Iceland 4-0 on Saturday, with some eye-catching football on the counter-attack.

Genadijs Solonicins and Juris Laizans were both off target with thumping efforts from distance, while Maris Verpakovskis also posed problems with his pace.

At the other end of the pitch, Healy sped into the back post to meet Gillespie's cross but headed wide, and moments later called Kolinko into action with a bouncing 25-yard strike.

Steven Davis, quietly commanding all night, was then unlucky to see a goal wiped out after cleverly turning in Sammy Clingan's through ball, as Lafferty was deemed to be active in an offside position.

In the last 15 minutes Northern Ireland started to live much more dangerously, by sitting back and inviting Latvia forward.

Maik Taylor had to stand tall to deny Girt Karlsons, before four defenders camped on the line helped to clear the danger.