San Marino At Home - 14/10/23

 

It was match day in Belfast on Saturday with a win for Northern Ireland the only good outcome as they played 207th-ranked San Marino at Windsor Park. We decided to get up and after it early with kick-off at 2 p.m. and got the midday train into town to have a few pre-match pints at Lavery's. Heading into the stadium there were a few pre-match nerves that San Marino might actually be able to snatch a draw considering how badly we had been playing recently. However, these nerves were put to bed early with two quick goals from Paul Smyth and Josh Magennis in the fifth and eleventh minute. This was about the height of the excitement though as Northern Ireland took their foot off the gas and ended up running out 3-0 winners after a rainy affair at Windsor Park.

The hope was that Northern Ireland would be able to push on after this win and get a good result against Slovenia on Tuesday after dominating the reverse fixture. After the match, we got a chippy from Monte Carlo and a few cans for the road with two Rugby World Quarter finals still to be played later in the day. We then regrouped with everyone else at Lavery's and decided to go to the Queens student union to watch the Ireland match against New Zealand which turned out to be a cagey affair. Although it ended up being a disappointing loss for Ireland in a World Cup that they were quite fancied to win. We then decided to get a move on again and went to the Bot to watch the boxing. Once this was done it was off to get food again and a taxi home after a long day of sport in what turned out to be a day of mixed emotions.

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