article_snippet: An improving Northern Ireland have An improving Northern Ireland own qualifier against Finland and, like the Scots, had an eye on the bigger prize.
article_snippet: Northern Ireland have improved immensely over the last year, beating Hungary and Greece.
article_snippet: They boss Michael O’Neill, an old face on the Scottish scene, said: ‘For us I thought there were more positive than negatives.
article_snippet: For Northern Ireland, the arrival of the mercurial Paddy McCourt - scorer of extraordinary goals for Celtic - and former Rangers skipper Steven Davis also raised interest levels.
article_snippet: There is a lot more depth in the Scotland squad at this moment in time,’ Northern Ireland boss O’Neill said.
article_snippet: Northern Ireland boss O’Neill probably spoke for a nation.