McMenemy defends McIlroy's shortage of success

Sammy McIlroy, the beleaguered manager of Northern Ireland, has received support from an unlikely source: the man he replaced as team manager, Lawrie McMenemy.

Following defeat by Greece on Wednesday, McIlroy will take his side into the Euro 2004 qualifier against Spain on 11 June without a win since October 2001, but McMenemy said: "It doesn't matter who the [Northern Ireland] manager is. Even Sir Alex Ferguson couldn't get better results. You can only work with the people you have and Sammy doesn't have a great deal of choice."

Northern Ireland have failed to find the target in 792 minutes and had two players, the striker James Quinn and midfielder Keith Gillespie, sent off against Greece. Both will thus miss the game against Spain, the Group Six favourites.

Gillespie accused the Greece defender Sotirios Kyrgiakos of getting him sent off. "The guy really made a meal of it when I got the second yellow card," Gillespie said. "He lay down until the physio arrived to make sure I got booked. Five minutes before he fouled me and I got up straight away. Maybe I shouldn't have. Maybe we're too honest."

Gillespie had nothing but praise for the Irish supporters. "James and I watched the game on TV in the dressing-room and both of us said how great the fans were. If England were 2-0 down and had two men sent off, the fans would turn on them, no question of that."

Northern Ireland's friendly against Italy at Campobasso, near Rome, has been brought forward a day to 3 June.