Promising campaign ends with win
Wednesday, March 30, 2005
Article summary
Northern Ireland 1-6 Serbia and Montenegro Nenad Marinkovic's hat-trick helps his nation go out on a high.
Article body
Serbia and Montenegro may already have been out of contention to reach the UEFA European Under-17 Championship finals, but they made it five wins out of six from a promising campaign with a crushing victory against Northern Ireland in a match moved to Solihull today as Kidderminster's Aggborough stadium was waterlogged.
England defeat
A 3-1 defeat by England in their opening Elite round Group 2 match meant that despite defeating the Republic of Ireland two days ago, Serbia and Montenegro could not overhaul the pool hosts even with three points against a team who had lost both their previous matches. However, goals from Rodoljub Marjanovic on 19 and 30 minutes set them on the way to victory in Solihull.
Marinkovic hat-trick
Miloš Karišik made it three just before the break, and within seconds of the restart Nenad Marinkovic increased the lead. Not long afterwards Curtis Allen pulled one back for the 2003/04 qualifiers, but Marinkovic scored on 52 and 56 minutes to complete a quarter-hour hat-trick for a team that won all their qualifying round matches and finished second in this group, three points adrift of England.
