GOALSCORING HERO DAVID HEALY HAS GOOD
MEMORIES ABOUT DENMARK 05/10/2006By IFA Communications Consultant Heather Jan Brunt in Copenhagen, Denmark
NORTHERN Ireland’s hat trick goal scorer David Healy is training in bright sunshine
in preparation for the game against Denmark on Saturday.
And he's looking forward, with relish, to creating a tremendous atmosphere for
the 3000 travelling Northern Ireland fans who will, no doubt, out sing and
outshine the 37,000 Danish fans.
David says: "Being here brings back nice memories. The last time we played Denmark
I scored in the home leg and we got a one - one draw at the national stadium we're
going to play at on Saturday.
"Denmark is a good side with good players so if we get anywhere near doing as well
as we did last time I'm sure we'll be happy.
"I should imagine the majority of their current team were not playing five or six years
ago when I was first breaking into the side that actually played Denmark. They are
good players, they play for big clubs around Europe so they are going to be massive,
massive favourites, but we've proved in the past that we are capable of upsetting the
odds on the odd occasion!"
Looking back on one of those 'odd occasions', with his stunning hat trick victory over
Spain last month David was clearly delighted to be told that manager Lawrie Sanchez
had just told SKY television that he considered each of David's three goals to be World
Class, and he should be playing in the Premiership.
"That was nice of him," smiled David. "I think Lawrie's mentioned in the past, in the press,
that he can't understand why people don't take a chance. But I'm happy with Leeds, it's
a big club and the expectation is that we will get back into the Premiership."
The Spain victory was shown on BBC's Match of the Day, with anchor man Gary Linekar
and pundits Alan Hanson and Alan Shearer eulogising over David's skill.
David recalls: "I read Alan Shearer's quotes about me and when you hear people like that,
who's well respected on the pitch and off the pitch, it's nice to be recognised as a player
to be watched."
Asked whether he considered the Spain victory to be bigger than England the previous year
David replies: "In my mind? It probably is, and it probably isn't, it's hard to say whether one
was better, but to score against England was unbelievable. The press coverage that we had
leading up to the game, and the coverage afterwards, with all the lads, or most of them,
playing in England, there was a lot of press coverage, something we're not used to. SKY tv
and the BBC wanted to speak to you.
"But to actually beat Spain was probably better for me, scoring the three goals, the hat trick."
David, known as Sir David by his devoted fans, is renowned for his modesty and reluctance to
take centre stage. Of his honoury knighthood he laughs: "It gets a little bit embarrassing but
it's nice to be remembered, and have people saying I'm the last person to have scored a hat
trick at Windsor since the great George Best. To be mentioned in the same breath and people
talk about you in that way it's obviously very flattering.
"You do your best no matter who you play. There's been some times, especially through the
14 games when we didn't score. I played in every single one of those games and people at
the time were calling for me to be left out, calling for other people to be given a chance, so
it's nice for me to look back now and to be able to prove them wrong. I was being written off,
but I've proved now that I'm capable of scoring goals for Northern Ireland."
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