goal hero christophe berra said scotland were rewarded for their patience with a late winner in the 1 0 victory against northern ireland the ipswich defender headed home in the 85th minute from a matt ritchie corner in the friendly at hampden park on wednesday night scotland keeper christophe berra celebrates scoring the winner against northern ireland  berra's goal finally broke the resistance of northern ireland and goalkeeper michael mcgovern, who had frustrated scotland with a succession of saves he said: 'it was a difficult game, they made it very difficult when teams do that it's very hard to break them down 'sometimes games are won on set pieces and luckily enough i managed to get my head on the end of a good corner kick and it just sneaked in' scotland boss gordon strachan was happy with a win and a clean sheet as preparation for sunday's euro 2016 qualifier against gibraltar christophe berra gets above his marker to head the ball into the corner for a late winner for scotland  bournemouth star matt ritchie, who made his debut in wednesday night's game, controls the ball in midfield  he said: 'the start was good, lots of efforts on goals, mcgovern played very well but after half an hour it became a friendly feel but we kept plugging away and doing the right things and to win the game and keep a clean sheet is good' northern ireland manager michael o'neill insisted there more positives than negatives following the narrow defeat he said: 'when you make so many substitutions, you are continually changing markers from set pieces under normal circumstances, i don't think we'd have lost that goal   and it's disappointing for michael mcgovern who had a good game 'we can take an awful lot (from the performance) we ended up with three 20 year olds or under 20 year olds on the pitch the likes of paddy mcnair, luke mccullough, ryan mclaughlin   it's great for those lads to get minutes in this type of game' steven fletcher gets a shot away but was unable to trouble goalkeeper michael mcgovern  the sunderland striker is denied again by michael mcgovern as he goes through one on one 
christophe berra scotland wednesday northern ireland michael mcgovern gordon strachan's gibraltar euro 2016 sunday
christophe berra scored late winner for scotland in friendly on wednesday . northern ireland goalkeeper michael mcgovern had kept home side at bay . gordon strachan's side face gibraltar in euro 2016 qualifier on sunday 