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Southampton: Davis nets as Northern Ireland win 3-0 in friendly

By Chris Hughes

BELFAST, NORTHERN IRELAND - SEPTEMBER 11: Steve Davis of Northern Ireland celebrates with team mates after scoring during the international friendly football match between Northern Ireland and Israel at Windsor Park on September 11, 2018 in Belfast, Northern Ireland. (Photo by Charles McQuillan/Getty Images)
BELFAST, NORTHERN IRELAND - SEPTEMBER 11: Steve Davis of Northern Ireland celebrates with team mates after scoring during the international friendly football match between Northern Ireland and Israel at Windsor Park on September 11, 2018 in Belfast, Northern Ireland. (Photo by Charles McQuillan/Getty Images) /
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The Southampton midfielder scored his 11th international goal with the strike, as Michael O’Neill’s side beat Israel to make up for their defeat to Bosnia last week.

Whilst the result from this game didn’t matter as much, the Northern Irish will be happy to finish their international break on a high, with Southampton captain Steven Davis scoring after just 13 minutes with a deflected strike.

But it’ll be his teammate Gavin Whyte who will claim the headlines, as the 22-year-old scored with his first touch in senior international football, finding the back of the net just 106 seconds after coming off of the subs bench.

Stuart Dallas scored the other goal as Northern Ireland enjoyed a much more enjoyable evening than their one against Bosnia-Herzegovina, as Israel offered little going forward for their equal possession.

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BELFAST, NORTHERN IRELAND – SEPTEMBER 11: Steve Davis of Northern Ireland and Ben Bitton of Israel fight for the ball during the international friendly football match between Northern Ireland and Israel at Windsor Park on September 11, 2018 in Belfast, Northern Ireland. (Photo by Charles McQuillan/Getty Images)
BELFAST, NORTHERN IRELAND – SEPTEMBER 11: Steve Davis of Northern Ireland and Ben Bitton of Israel fight for the ball during the international friendly football match between Northern Ireland and Israel at Windsor Park on September 11, 2018 in Belfast, Northern Ireland. (Photo by Charles McQuillan/Getty Images) /

With Davis’ last two international goals coming against San Marino, the first-half strike was arguably his first proper finish since 2015, at which point he scored against Latvia in a friendly – it was also his second goal against Israel having found the back of the net in a EURO 2014 qualifier against them.

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Furthermore, Davis has now only scored two of his 11 international goals away from Belfast, having averaged a goal just under every ten games for his national side – a much better ratio than at Southampton where he scored nearly the same amount but in 190 league games.

However Davis remains a peripheral figure at St. Mary’s at the moment and has now played more minutes over this international break than in the first month of Premier League fixtures – his only appearance this campaign has been in the Carabao Cup win against Brighton.

The Southampton captain will apparently hold talks with manager Mark Hughes regarding his future – although his good performance this evening could give the Welshman a selection headache ahead of the Saints’ Monday Night Football match-up against the Seagulls in just under a week.

Elsewhere tonight Jan Bednarek came off of the bench for Poland as they played the Replublic of Ireland in their own friendly – that game ended 1-1.

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