Lafferty enjoys Northern Ireland's big night

Last updated : 15 August 2013 By Tony Scholes
Danny Lafferty played in Northern Ireland's 1-0 win

They were facing Russia at Windsor Park, Belfast in a World Cup qualifier that had previously been postponed in March due to heavy snow in the capital. It proved to be a superb night that was described by the Irish FA as another wonderful Windsor Wednesday.

It was a night when they shocked the Russians with a 1-0 win to give Michael O'Neill his first win since becoming manager and it wasn't anything but deserved as they also hit the woodwork and had a goal disallowed.

That disallowed goal was scored by former Claret Martin Paterson. Now with Huddersfield, where he is still to open his account, it is just a year today since he scored his first international goal, a late penalty equaliser in a friendly against Finland.

Last night, two minutes before half time, he rose above the Russian defence to head home a Niall McGinn cross beyond the visiting goalkeeper Igor Akinfeev.

Lafferty, who was reported to have had an excellent game,  played the full ninety minutes and at Cardiff it was cap number 26 for Vokes who was introduced as a substitute for Craig Bellamy just before the hour. This game was a friendly against the Republic of Ireland.

Both Burnley players will now be looking forward to getting call ups for the forthcoming World Cup qualifiers at the beginning of September. Northern Ireland face Portugal at home before travelling to Luxembourg and Wales have a trip to Macedonia before hosting Serbia, again in Cardiff. Lafferty, however,  won't be eligible to play in the first of their two games, against Portugal, after picking up a yellow card in last night's win. He'll now serve a one match ban.

One other ex-Claret was in action last night. Gary Cahill played the whole game minutes as England beat Scotland 3-2 at Wembley in a fixture that was part of The FA's 150th anniversary celebrations.

The Internationals feature on Clarets Mad has now been updated to include these appearances.