Reasons to be gloomy and/or cheerful

If you've come looking for cynicism then you're in the wrong place. But if reasoned and informed debate is your thing, then stick around, we might have something to interest you. Today's discussion topic is: "Northern Ireland football: still fumbling hopelessly in the dark or striding confidently towards a new era?" and is prompted by the team's 1-0 win in Malta last Saturday, the first competitive away win since 1995. In the interests of balance and fair play we intend to present both sides of the argument.

THE DOOM AND GLOOM POSITION

1. The Northern Ireland team is still operating from a position of inflated importance, the inevitable consequence of having qualified for two World Cup finals during the 1980s with only the most scant of resources. This dictates that the achievements of the team are viewed strictly in terms of whether it qualifies for the European Championship or World Cup finals and ignores everything going on around the periphery.

The reality is that Northern Ireland's current standing in the European rankings is as a fourth or fifth-level seed. Their finishing position in Group Three reflects that, with only Malta finishing below them. This means that rather than judge the team against the Portugals, Spains and Italys of this world, attention should focus on the likes of Cyprus, Greece and Moldova as an indicator of where Northern Ireland stands. Pitch your sights a little lower and the end product may be just a little more palatable.

2. The paucity of quality players. No getting away from this one. Of the 11 players who took the field in Malta last Saturday, only one, Jim Magilton, is a current first team regular with a club in the English Premiership, and the Ipswich midfielder is comfortably the wrong side of 30. That picture may be a little artificially bleak because of the absence through injury of Keith Gillespie and Gerry Taggart, but the overall scenario remains broadly the same. With a collection of squad members from the English First Division and Scottish League, the respectable rather than the spectacular seems destined to remain the norm.

3. George Best. Some 30 years after he last figured as a competitive international force, Best still remains the benchmark by which every vaguely talented player is judged. This sepia-toned approach is both retrogressive and debilitating. A case in point was a BBC Northern Ireland documentary on the nascent career of striker David Healy screened last week.

Healy is a gifted footballer, and in the context of everything else Northern Ireland has to offer just now is certainly worthy of the documentary treatment. Why, then, was a significant section of the programme taken up with fairly tenuous comparisons between Healy and Best based solely on the fact that both went to Manchester United as apprentices 30 years apart? The inescapable conclusion was that the inclusion of Best was little more than an excuse to parade the old, familiar library footage just one more time. Our view of David Healy could only be diminished by that.

4. Neil Lennon. The treatment meted out to Lennon on his first international appearance after a move to Celtic remains a blight on modern Northern Ireland football which will take a long time to remove. As his dignified drift away from international football continued with another withdrawal from the squad last week, commentators and supporters alike had the temerity to criticise Lennon and question his commitment. They would do well to realise that the initial fault lay with the booing, cat-calling supporters themselves, and that the cause of making Northern Ireland a genuinely inclusive, cross-community side was set back 10 or 15 years.

ALWAYS LOOK ON THE BRIGHT SIDE OF LIFE

1. David Healy. Perhaps not quite good enough for Manchester United, but there is no great shame in that. Although Healy's career has stalled just a little at Preston at the start of this season, his international form leaves nothing to be desired. His winning penalty last Saturday was his eighth goal in just 15 appearances. Reminiscent in build and turn of foot to both Michael Owen and Robbie Keane, Healy exudes a similar, live-wire presence as he leads the line for Northern Ireland. The great imponderable is whether he will ever get enough quality possession to make those attributes count.

2. Which is where the crop of promising young players might come in. While it is not exactly a production line, the gradual emergence of goalkeeper Roy Carrol, centre-half George McCartney and winger Damien Johnson offers grounds for guarded optimism. At a time when ball-playing centre-halves who can defend as well seem to be at a premium in the English Premiership, McCartney could be the pick of the crop.

3. Sammy McIlroy. One of the manager's greatest assets is that he is not Lawrie McMenemy, his immediate predecessor. The McMenemy era, entailing as it did the appointment of an outsider for the first time, was touted as a great experiment at the time but in reality was a disaster from start to finish. Morale among the players reached new lows, but even that could have been stomached if events on the pitch had been going well. They weren't, and McMenemy duly shuffled off the scene.

The elevation of McIlroy was greeted with decidedly low expectations, and in the early days his team did little to disappoint the pessimists. Recent results suggest the bottom has been reached and that an up-turn may be on the way. McIlroy's new contract represents an opportunity to lay down some secure foundations.

4. The Irish women's hockey team. McIlroy has shown a willingness to take inspiration from whatever sources are available, and this might be the most unlikely yet. The consensus is that in a world where the Republic go through the qualifiers unbeaten, amasses 24 points in the process and still fail to qualify, Northern Ireland might as well give up the ghost now and save us all a lot of time. But if Ireland's hockey finest can qualify for a major finals competition by virtue of a penalty shoot-out which they didn't even win, then there is hope for everyone. Salvation for Northern Ireland might yet be found in the pages of the rule book.