Match report as Isaac Price’s hat-trick propelled Northern Ireland to an impressive 5-0 victory over Bulgaria; Brodie Spencer’s shot hit a post and rebounded in off Bulgaria goalkeeper Dimitar Mitov to make it 3-0 at the break; Josh Magennis came off the bench to hit a late fifth.
Isaac Price’s hat-trick powered Northern Ireland to a stunning 5-0 win over Bulgaria that sent them top of their Nations League group.
After battering Belarus without reward in the opening 45 minutes of Saturday’s goalless draw, Northern Ireland took their frustrations out on Bulgaria as Price became the first Northern Ireland player to hit a treble since David Healy in a 4-1 win over Liechtenstein in March 2007.
After the Standard Liege forward got the opening two, Brodie Spencer’s shot hit a post and rebounded in off Bulgaria goalkeeper Dimitar Mitov to make it 3-0 at the break.
Price completed his hat-trick with the best goal of the night, a rising shot from the edge of the box, before Josh Magennis came off the bench to hit a late fifth.
The last time Northern Ireland won 5-0 at home, George Best scored a hat-trick against Cyprus in April 1971.
With Belarus and Luxembourg drawing 1-1 in Hungary, Northern Ireland sit top of League C Group 3 by one point before facing those two teams in their final games next month.
O’Neill brought in Ali McCann, Dion Charles and Spencer to lower the average age of his starting XI to just 22 years and seven months, and it paid off as the latter two starred in the first half.
Fifteen minutes in, Charles controlled Spencer’s header and then spun away from Zhivko Atanasov, playing a low ball across for Price to score Northern Ireland’s first goal in 269 minutes of football.
Charles might have been disappointed not to start ahead of Jamie Reid against Belarus having scored six goals in 12 for Bolton this season and looked charged up, twisting clear of Atanasov again in the 22nd minute before Simeon Petrov blocked his shot.
The second goal arrived in the 29th minute. Spencer burst down the left once more and fed Charles. He was fouled by Georgi Kostadinov as he tried to turn, but before Jerome Brisard could blow for a penalty, Price hit home via a deflection off Petrov.
Windsor Park was rocking and erupted three minutes later as Spencer cut in from the left and hit a low shot from 20 yards which struck a post and then rebounded in off hapless Aberdeen stopper Mitov.
The mood threatened to change five minutes before the break when Martin Minchev tumbled under a soft challenge from Eoin Toal, with Brisard pointing to the spot to the bemusement of the crowd.
Toal seemed to jar his knee as he went down, and adding insult to injury, before the Bolton defender limped off – replaced by Ciaron Brown – he was shown a yellow card that rules him out of next month’s game against Belarus.