Confidence drawn from friendly but stiffer test coming up

On Wednesday, Malta failed in their bid to halt a poor sequence of 12 matches without a win on the international scene when they had to settle for a one-all draw with Northern Ireland in a friendly at the National Stadium.

Before the match, coach Horst Heese said he was looking at the midweek international as an ideal occasion for the team to play some attacking football and perhaps finish on the winning side.

Indeed, such occurrences are rare in our football calendar. However, against Northern Ireland, the Maltese, despite missing a couple of key players, mainly in attack, tormented the visitors' defence for most of the match.

The start was promising only for our defence to let in the 'usual' soft goal after nine minutes. But, instead of crumbling under the pressure, the Maltese, with Gilbert Agius and new boy Orosco Anonam leading the charge from midfield, ventured forward more often.

Their efforts were rewarded 10 minutes from half-time thanks to a well-taken Ivan Woods goal.

Other chances went Malta's way but with goalkeeper Maik Taylor in fine form and our players fluffing a couple of easy chances, the stalemate prevailed.

One minute from time Antoine Zahra won a penalty for Malta. With regular penalty-taker Michael Mifsud missing through injury and Agius substituted in the second half, it seems George Mallia felt confident he should take the kick from the spot.

He tried to deceive Taylor but the wily Birmingham City keeper was lucky to guess the angle and save his team from an embarrassing defeat... tough luck on Mallia.

The last time we had a penalty in our favour, Mifsud beat the Israeli keeper for a 2-2 draw in neutral Turkey. The September 2003 match was a Euro 2004 qualifier. After that, the national team played 16 other matches with no penalty in favour.

Heese said the team played admirably well and described Wednesday's match as the best one for Malta since he took over for a second time. He also said the result was a perfect tonic for next month's tough double-header in World Cup qualification.

"It has been a long time since I've seen the national team doing so well," he said.

"We should have beaten Northern Ireland but a one-all draw is not a bad result. Besides, I was happy to see my players doing a lot of movement when not in possession.

"There was a lot of combative spirit in the side which was missing in previous matches. If we keep that trend going then we're on the right track.

"However, there's still work to be done. Against Hungary and Croatia it will be different... much different.

"On Wednesday, our fitness level was excellent for the first 65 minutes but then there was a decline.

"Perhaps, Malta's top teams in the Premier League need more matches of a certain calibre to see the players making progress in stamina and endurance."

Against Hungary on September 3, skipper Agius will be serving suspension and Woods, who got sent off for an altercation with Northern Ireland's Keith Gillespie, will wait to know what sanctions he will receive.

Everything depends on the referee's report but UK newspapers yesterday said Gillespie will be handed a three-match ban which will only apply to friendly internationals.

They quoted FIFA as saying that Wednesday's fixture was out-of-competition and the suspension would carry over to future friendlies.

Lawrie Sanchez, the Northern Ireland coach said: "We didn't win because we didn't perform to the level we can.

"Woods scored an unbelievable goal and if you give teams chances someone is going to take one. Credit to Malta, they showed good movement and looked comfortable."

The Maltese may have been heartened by the midweek showing against modest Northern Ireland. But, without doubt, our immediate opponents drew more confidence from the outcome of their matches against supreme opposition.

Hungary went down fighting to Argentina in Budapest.

Lothar Matthaeus's team lost 2-1 but played on a par with the South American giants for most of the match.

Croatia, who visit Malta on September 7, did even better.

They played world champions Brazil in Split without inspirational striker Dado Prso and held on to a hard-earned one-all draw.