Slovakia v Northern Ireland: Another Good Start to their World Cup Campaign for Northern Ireland?
Northern Ireland may well look to Wales for inspiration and tips ahead of their trip to Slovakia; Wales enjoyed a 5-2 victory away there last season.
After Kyle Lafferty’s withdrawal from the squad following a back injury the rest of the news is good for Northern Ireland supporters as their team appears to have no further injury worries. Jonny Evans’ fitness was clouded in some doubt but the defender has trained with the other members of the squad and showed no ill-effects. Meanwhile George McCartney, Keith Gillespie and Aaron Hughes are all back in the squad after missing the friendly in Scotland.
Historically speaking, there has only been one previous meeting between these two teams; a friendly in Northern Ireland a decade ago which the home team won 1-0. But Northern Ireland at home and Northern Ireland on the road are two very different things.
Northern Ireland last won away from home since March 2007 (1-4 versus Liechtenstein). However, their opponents here have not won at home since October 2007 (7-0 against San Marino). And Slovakia remain in troubled form having lost their last four games. The last two defeats were by two goals to nil.
Partick Thistle goalkeeper Jonathan Tuffey has earned a first call-up after Roy Carroll throw his toys out of the pram this summer and had a true ‘diva’ moment after indicating he would not travel to games unless he was guaranteed to start. But regular number one Maik Taylor is expecting to retain the jersey. The Birmingham keeper has kept three clean sheets from five games so far this season.
This is one of the more difficult fixtures to predict this week; even Alan Hansen’s unsure how to call it and has placing a £2 bet and covered both draw and away win. After all, there’s no point in letting anything come between you and that mega £175,000 rollover jackpot on Footy 15 this week. If you take his lead and stick on a £2 bet this week - be it for this fixture or any of the 15 in the list, we’ll give you another £2 bet for this week’s competition completely free - that’s four stabs at the £175,000 jackpot for just £2.
Pundits Pick: Alan Hansen has spoken: (Draw and Away Win)
Tags: footy 15, Match Preview, Northern Ireland, Premier 10, Slovakia, World Cup Qualifier
