North's hopes end in Tallinn

GROUP C: Estonia 4 Northern Ireland 1:NORTHERN IRELAND'S hopes of reaching Euro 2012 were reduced to tatters in Tallinn last night as a series of individual mistakes left them on the wrong end of a humbling defeat by Estonia.

In a game littered with defensive mishaps, woeful lapses in concentration from goalkeeper Lee Camp and defender Gareth McAuley were responsible for two of Estonia’s four goals, with the consolation effort coming only when Raio Piroja scored an own goal on 40 minutes.

Comprehensive defeat to a nation ranked 86th in the Fifa rankings – 27 spots below Northern Ireland – will hurt but, having lost to Serbia on Friday too, it also leaves them fifth in Group C and with no hope of salvaging a play-off spot.

Martin Vunk had looked dangerous when Estonia went forward and it was the midfielder who gave his side the lead after 28 minutes. Dmitri Kruglov broke down the left, beating Chris Baird before McAuley failed to deal with his low cross. Instead, the ball fell to Vunk who drilled home.

Worse was to come four minutes later, Tarmo Kink shooting speculatively from distance only for Camp to produce his horror moment as the ball bounced just in front of him. The Nottingham Forest goalkeeper appeared to misjudge the flight of the ball and as he tried to smother it with his legs, diverted it over the line.

Northern Ireland gave up another shocking goal on the hour. Sander Puri eased between Aaron Hughes and Craig Cathcart to head against the post, then McAuley dawdled after collecting the loose ball, allowing Sergei Zenjov to steal in behind him to score from close range. A fourth goal came in injury time as the goalkeeper palmed a deflected cross to Konstantin Vassiljev, who teed up Kaimar Saag to convert.

ESTONIA:Pareiko, Jaager, Rahn, Piiroja, Klavan, Puri (Purje 63), Vunk, Vassiljev, Kink (Saag 88), Kruglov, Ahjupera (Zenjov 52). Subs Not Used: Kotenko, Palatu, Stepanov, Teniste. Booked: Rahn. Goals: Vunk 29, Kink 32, Zenjov 59, Saag 90.

NORTHERN IRELAND:Camp, Hughes, Cathcart, Baird, McAuley, Clingan, Davis, Brunt, McCann, McGinn (McQuoid 65), Healy (Feeney 65). Subs Not Used: Taylor, McGivern, Little, Carson, Gorman. Goals: Piiroja 39 og.

Referee:Daniel Stalhammar (Sweden).