Northern Ireland moved top of Nations League Group C3 with an Isaac Price hat-trick helping the side to a stunning 5-0 win over Bulgaria at Windsor Park.
The Standard Liege midfielder had two international goals before Tuesday night in Belfast but bettered that tally in this game alone having scored twice in the first-half before completing his treble with a sensational effort into the top corner nine minutes from time.
In doing so Price became the first Northern Ireland player to net three times in the same game since David Healy hit the second of his two international hat-tricks against Liechtenstein in 2007.
Between Price’s second and third, Bulgarian keeper Dimitar Mitov deflected Brodie Spencer’s effort into his own goal after the ball had come back off a post and Josh Magennis rounded out the scoring with a thunderous fifth in the closing minutes.
On a night when nothing went right for the visitors, Bulgaria captain Kiril Despodov, who had scored the only goal when these sides met in Plovdiv last month, missed a first-half penalty with the score 3-0.
Despite Northern Ireland’s 0-0 draw with Belarus only serving to highlight the side’s struggles in front of goal as recently as Saturday, having found the net twice in three Nations League games so far., they actually came into this game as the top scorers in the group.
Still, few would have predicted the flurry of goals that lay in store.
When the deadlock was broken after 15 minutes, the goal’s creator surely gave Michael O’Neill some satisfaction.
Bolton Wanderers’ forward Dion Charles was one of three changes made to the side from Saturday’s game and, after no small show of his persistence to win the ball ahead of Zhivko Atanasov, it was his excellent pass with the outside of his right foot that preceded Isaac Price’s dinked finish over Dimitar Mitov.
Evidently buoyed by his return to the starting line-up, Charles turned Atanasov to get in the box once again soon after, though this time Mitov was equal to the effort.
And he was involved again in Price’s second. On this occasion, it was Spencer flying down the right flank, the Huddersfield Town man’s ball into the box seemingly going to yield a penalty when Dion Charles was hauled to the ground only for Price to arrive on cue and smash home the loose ball.
Having scored twice in 15 previous caps, the midfielder had doubled his international tally in 21 minutes and there was still more to come.
With Northern Ireland suddenly in complete control of the game, two ricochets off the woodwork would ensured it stayed that way into the second half.
First, Brodie Spencer’s effort from outside the box deflected off the post and then Mitov for an own goal. Then, five minutes before the break, after Jerome Brisard awarded a penalty for an apparent push by Eoin Toal, Bulgarian skipper Despodov crashed his effort off the crossbar.
Despite those dual slices of luck, the hosts will have felt full value for their lead with Illian Illiev’s side proving unable to deal with Northern Ireland’s high-press and efforts to overload the left side.
Just as it had in western Hungary three days before, the intensity noticeably dropped in the early stages of the second half, albeit this time with Northern Ireland’s job done.
With Bulgaria pressed into fewer mistakes in their own third, genuine openings would prove more scarce in the 20 minutes after the restart, although O’Neill’s side did threaten from a number of corners.
They would have the ball in the net again with 23 minutes remaining, though VAR chalked off Dion Charles’ effort with Conor Bradley having been offside when receiving an arrowed pass from keeper Pierce Charles. That seemed to inject some life back into the contest with Northern Ireland finding the net twice more late on.
The pick of the goals came as Price completed his hat-trick, arcing a shot into the top corner from 20 yards with the 21-year-old taken off to a rousing ovation from the Windsor Park crowd soon after.
And it was one of the replacements who put the icing on the cake, Josh Magennis thumping the fifth off the crossbar for his 12th international goal.
Having scored five goals in their previous five internationals, the emphatic end to the side’s scoring troubles puts them in pole position in Group C3 with games against Belarus and Luxembourg to come next month.
