Northern Ireland 0 Czech Republic 0: Worthington's men overcome blow to make point

Northern Ireland secured their first point of the qualifying campaign last nightdespite the loss of the influential Steve Davis in the run-up to the match. Rangers midfielder Davis left their training base and returned home to deal with a personal matter.

It was a blow for manager Nigel Worthington, given his side were facing a team ranked eighth in the world. But this was certainly a more confident performance than the one at the weekend when they went down to Slovakia in Bratislava. There was a scare for Northern Ireland as early as the sixth minute when Marek Jankulovski was close with a free-kick from distance. The Czechs threatened again three minutes later when Radoslav Kovac peeled away from his marker and headed narrowly over the bar.

Petr Cech did well to stop a wayward header from team-mate David Rozehnal. Milan Baros should have put the visitors ahead on the stroke of half-time but headed wide following a cross from Zdenek Grygera.

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Wayne Feeney and Chris Brunt went close after the break but a draw was a fair result.

orthern Ireland: Taylor, McCartney, Evans, Hughes, Craigan, Gillespie, Clingan, Baird, Brunt, Healy, Feeney. Substitutes: Mannus, McAuley, Paterson, McGivern, O'Connor, Shiels, Thompson.

Czech Republic: Cech, Grygera, Jankulovski, Rozehnal, Ujfalusi, Kovac, Plasil, Polak, Sionko, Sirl, Baros. Substitutes: Drobny, Kadlec, Pospech, Jarolim, Rajnoch, Fenin, Slepicka.

Referee: I Bebek (Croatia).

Attendance: 14,000.

Yesterday's results N Ireland 0 Czech Republic 0; San Marino 0 Poland 2; Slovenia 2 Slovakia 1.

N Ireland's remaining fixtures: 11 Oct Slovenia (a); 15 Oct San Marino (h); 11 Feb 2009 San Marino (a); 28 March Poland (h); 1 April Slovenia (h); 5 Sept Poland (a); 9 Sept Slovakia (h); 14 Oct Czech Republic (a).