Ball keeps Northern Ireland rolling

Matthew Ball's strike ten minutes from time ensured Northern Ireland kept their hopes of qualifying for the UEFA European Under-17 Championship finals alive.

The elite round Group 4 hosts lost 4-0 to Spain on Wednesday, while Poland were being beaten 2-0 by Belgium. Northern Ireland's victory means a win against Belgium on Monday would take them to May's finals in Liechtenstein provided eliminated Poland do not lose to Spain.

Poland, who knew at kick-off that they could no longer win the group, began brightly and Maciej Stróżak and Szymon Drewniak had early chances but the first half was largely quiet. Michal Nalepa tested Northern Ireland goalkeeper Gareth Deane from distance but the hosts were beginning to have most of the possession – which was made to tell with ten minutes left when a cross was cleared only as far as Ball, who found the bottom corner from ten metres out. Substitute Kacper Przybyłko was denied by Deane late on.

Ball said: "It's a great result. The first-half performance wasn't as good as we would have liked. But in the second half, we came out and passed the ball well, and got our rewards in the end. The performance in the second half was good and I thought we deserved the win. I'm obviously very happy to get the goal as well. We were disappointed with the result on Wednesday night against Spain, because we played well in the first half. In the second half we let ourselves down, but hopefully after tonight's performance we can do well against Belgium on Monday and go on and qualify. It's a game that we're all looking forward to now."