Isaac Price’s hat-trick powered Northern Ireland to a stunning 5-0 win over Bulgaria that sent them top of their Nations League group.
After battering Belarus without reward in the opening 45 minutes of Saturday’s goalless draw, Northern Ireland took their frustrations out on Bulgaria as Price became the first Northern Ireland player to hit a treble since David Healy in a 4-1 win over Liechtenstein in March 2007.
After the Standard Liege forward got the opening two, Brodie Spencer’s shot hit a post and rebounded in off Bulgaria goalkeeper Dimitar Mitov to make it 3-0 at the break.
Price completed his hat-trick with the best goal of the night, a rising shot from the edge of the box, before Josh Magennis came off the bench to hit a late fifth.
The last time Northern Ireland won 5-0 at home, George Best scored a hat-trick against Cyprus in April 1971.
With Belarus and Luxembourg drawing 1-1 in Hungary, Northern Ireland sit top of League C Group 3 by one point before facing those two teams in their final games next month.
Bulgaria arrived in Belfast unbeaten in nine games under manager Ilian Iliev, including a 1-0 win over Northern Ireland in Plovdiv last month, but that came to a sudden halt as Michael O’Neill’s men made it four wins in their last five at Windsor Park.
O’Neill brought in Ali McCann, Dion Charles and Spencer to lower the average age of his starting XI to just 22 years and seven months, and it paid off as the latter two starred in the first half.
Fifteen minutes in, Charles controlled Spencer’s header and then spun away from Zhivko Atanasov, playing a low ball across for Price to score Northern Ireland’s first goal in 269 minutes of football.
Charles might have been disappointed not to start ahead of Jamie Reid against Belarus having scored six goals in 12 for Bolton this season and looked charged up, twisting clear of Atanasov again in the 22nd minute before Simeon Petrov blocked his shot.
The second goal arrived in the 29th minute. Spencer burst down the left once more and fed Charles. He was fouled by Georgi Kostadinov as he tried to turn, but before Jerome Brisard could blow for a penalty, Price hit home via a deflection off Petrov.
Windsor Park was rocking and erupted three minutes later as Spencer cut in from the left and hit a low shot from 20 yards which struck a post and then rebounded in off hapless Aberdeen stopper Mitov.
The mood threatened to change five minutes before the break when Martin Minchev tumbled under a soft challenge from Eoin Toal, with Brisard pointing to the spot to the bemusement of the crowd.
Toal seemed to jar his knee as he went down, and adding insult to injury, before the Bolton defender limped off – replaced by Ciaron Brown – he was shown a yellow card that rules him out of next month’s game against Belarus.
But having been gifted a route back into the game, Bulgaria failed to take it as Kiril Despodov smacked his penalty against the crossbar.
Dion Charles thought he had a fourth in the 68th minute, sweeping in after captain Conor Bradley’s shot was cleared off the line following a superb long pass from goalkeeper Pierce Charles, but VAR ruled it out for offside.
The crowning moment came in the 81st minute when Shea Charles charged forward and then slipped the ball to Price, who took a quick look up and arrowed a shot into the top right-hand corner of the net for his fifth international goal.
Northern Ireland were still not done and in the 89th minute Paul Smyth picked out fellow substitute Magennis, who powered home a shot off the underside of the crossbar.
What’s next?
Northern Ireland host Belarus on Friday November 15 as their Nations League campaign continues.
