Rare win for Northern Ireland

David Healy joined a select band of Northern Ireland goalscorers by reaching double figures with a spectacular first-half winner here in Tallinn last night.

The Preston striker ended his country's world record 1,298-minute scoring drought with a header against Norway last month and followed up by securing their first win for two-and-a-half years in the second game of Lawrie Sanchez's reign as manager.

Latching on to a cross-field pass from Steve Jones in first-half injury time, Healy cut in from the left before rifling an unstoppable drive into the far corner. It took his goal tally to 10 - only three behind Colin Clarke's all-time record - and crowned a dominant display from Sanchez's side that made a mockery of the gulf in world rankings between Estonia in 66th position and 124th-placed Northern Ireland.

If anything, Estonia escaped lightly as industrious midfielder Jeff Whitley went close three times and centre back Stephen Craigan had a header cleared off the line.

As he celebrated Northern Ireland's first win in 16 games, a delighted Sanchez said: 'One or two of the players have enhanced their reputations here and convinced me they have got to be in the team again.

'Estonia have not been gifted their FIFA ranking. It has come from winning games, so to outplay them like that was encouraging.'