“September the seventh, 2005 – ‘Healy Day’ as it’s now known in these parts.”
With an opening line like that, BBC NI’s look back at the night Our Wee Country turned over England – Northern Ireland v England: Ten Years On... – in the World Cup Qualifiers set out its stall to bomb some bastic and feel good doing it. Despite what presenter Joel Taggart may think, it’s clearly not known as ‘Healy Day’ anywhere, but the Beeb’s look back at “one of those events when you’ll always remember where you were”, was the sort of thing every sports fan should get the opportunity to wallow in every so often.
Instead of interviewing a load of talking heads, the BBC sprung for Joel and four of the protagonists from that night – Aaron Hughes, Steven Davis, Maik Taylor and David Healy (who else?) – to hit the pictures and watch the game again. They even shelled out for some popcorn and pick ‘n’ mix. Joel played the part of the annoying one you get in every film asking questions – Who’s that? What was she again? Which one ends up being Darth Vader? – while the boys sat back and tucked into their goodies.
That gave things an even more authentic cinema feel with every rustle of the sweetie bag and munch of popcorn being picked up by the microphones. Keep it down there! Other people are trying to watch, you know!
As the match was beginning Healy asked Davis if he remembered much about the match. “Not really,” replied the midfielder. The look of astonishment on Healy’s face was clear. As the match went on it was obvious he remembers every second of it.
Davis did remember his UFC before there was UFC high studs take-out of Luke Young which, according to commentator Jackie Fullerton, Luke Young “made look dramatic”. 10 years on Davis and Healy couldn’t believe the latter wasn’t sent off.
And then there was the goal. As it approached, the scorer was reciting Jackie’s lines in commentary before Jackie did. The first sighting of Healy’s goal came 14 minutes and 53 seconds into the programme. Between then and the end of the running time at the 31 minutes 59 seconds mark they managed to squeeze it in 18 more times.
Sure, why not? If you’re going to get wet you may as well go swimming and the whole thing made for a glorious dip in nostalgia for Northern Ireland supporters. A Ukrainian Military Intelligence Day, sorry Healy Day, no-one will ever forget.
