Friendly in Belfast, March 27, 1996
===================================
Northern Ireland - Norway 0-2 (0-0)
Windsor Park
Att: 5343
0-1 Ole Gunnar Solskjær (51)
0-2 Egil Østenstad (78)
Referee: J Ashman, Wales.
Red card: Iain Dowie, Northern Ireland
Yellow card: Henning Berg, Mini Jakobsen, Norway

Line-ups
--------
Northern Ireland (4-5-1): A Fettis - S Lomas, C Hill, A McDonald, N Worthington
(K Rowland from 57.) - K Gillespie, J Magilton (D Patterson from 46.),
M O'Neill (G McMahon from 62.), N Lennon, M Hughes - I Dowie.

Norway (4-4-2): F Grodås (E Thorstvedt from 46.) - A I Håland, H Berg,
R Johnsen, S I Bjørnebye - P Rudi, K Rekdal, S Solbakken (C Lundekvam 
from 86.), Ø Leonhardsen (J I Jakobsen from 25.) - O G Solskjær, J Å Fjørtoft
(E Østenstad from 75.).


Match report
------------
Finally, after an 8 game non-winnning streak, the Norwegian national team 
won a game on Wednesday. Although, the opposition was an ordinary 
Northern Irish side, the importance of this win can not be underestimated.
After all, Norway was playing away, and fielding more and more younger
players. Two of those got the goals, and a third, Rudi, was the man behind
both. The first took a lucky deflection off a defender before sailing 
over the helpless Fettis, whereas the second was an easy tap-in after
a mixture of elementary mistakes in the Northern Irish defense. 

What was encouraging was that the young players aquitted themselves very
well, and some of the old "horses" could now be on their way out, e.g. Mini,
Thorstvedt and even Fjørtoft. The little winger was only given his chance
after Leonhardsen had to go off injured early in the first half, whereas
the big goalkeeper played the whole second half, failing to impress and
losing the ball a couple of times. Grodås was playing better in the half he 
played. As for Fjørtoft, he had a quiet game, obviously lacking in confidence
after spending the last games for Middlesboro' on the substitutes bench.

The next (and last) preparation game is against Spain in April, before 
the WC qualifying matches begin with the home game against Azerbaijan
in June.