Hughes makes his first start for Northern Ireland

By Nathan Jackson
February 8 2006

In the past 3 days, Jeff Hughes has become the latest Imp to make his impact on the international scene with Northern Ireland. Hughes joined 3 ohter Imps who have represented their country during Keith Alexander's second reign as Imps manager and Hughes' excellent season continues.

Since Keith took over, Gareth McAuley has become a regular in the Northern Irish national squad, making his debut against Germany in 2005. Lee Beevers has also represented Wales at the U21 level since joining the Imps from Boston just under a year ago. The other Imp to have represented his country since 2002 whilst at the Imps is Allan Pearce, who played in a few international friendlies for New Zealand. Paul Morgan was the unlucky Imp as he was due to play in a friendly against Macclesfield Town for the Northern Irish, however, injury prevented that from happening.

Hughes won his first cap on Monday as he helped the Northern Irish U21s to a 1-0 victory in Tel Aviv and he started the U21's friendly on Wednesday night, also against their Israel counterparts and just like the match in Tel Aviv, the match in Nazareth finished 1-0.

The 2 caps for the U21s is a reward for Hughes' recent contributions to the first team and just like many other players, Hughes' has come into the side surprisingly and excellend since the departure of Gary Simpson and will more than likely start against Torquay on Saturday.