Football: Bingham is ready for the monster

Billy Bingham, the Northern Ireland manager, takes his side into tonight's World Cup tie against Spain in Belfast vowing not to make the same mistakes as his England counterpart, Graham Taylor.

Taylor's England side lost 1-0 in a friendly in Spain last month and Bingham, preparing for a match that is being billed as the 'Battle of Belfast', believes he has picked out where Taylor went wrong.

'England were much too loose and we won't make that mistake,' Bingham said.

Javier Clemente, the Spanish manager, who has been under pressure after a goalless draw in Latvia three weeks ago, has selected the hard-tackling 23-year-old Atletico Madrid central defender, Juan Manuel Lopez, nicknamed 'The Monster From Madrid'.

NORTHERN IRELAND (probable): Wright (Newcastle); Fleming (Barnsley), Worthington (Sheff Wed), Taggart (Barnsley), McDonald (QPR), Donaghy (Chelsea), Wilson (Notts Co), Magilton (Oxford), Hughes (Strasbourg), Clarke (Portsmouth), Dowie (Southampton). Substitutes (from): Fettis (Hull), Quinn (Bournemouth), Black (Nottm Forest), Morrow (Arsenal), Rowland (Bournemouth), McNally (West Brom).

SPAIN (probable): Zubizarreta (Barcelona); Solozabal (Atletico Madrid), Lopez (Atletico Madrid), Toni (Atletico Madrid), Ferrer (Barcelona), Michel (Real Madrid), Amor (Barcelona), Martin Vasquez (Real Madrid), Hierro (Real Madrid), Barragan (La Coruna) Manolo (Atletico Madrid).

Referee: K Kruge (Germany).