UEFA president Michel Platini was in Belfast on Wednesday night to present Northern Ireland striker David Healy with a special UEFA award for his record of 13 goals in the Euro 2008 qualifying campaign.

Fulham striker Healy broke the previous record of twelve goals held by Croatia's Davor Suker from the Euro 96 qualifying campaign and has now set a benchmark that even the great Platini feels will be hard to beat.

Northern Ireland narrowly failed to qualify for the Euro 2008 finals in Austria and Switzerland on the back of Healy's goalscoring exploits which included two hat-tricks against minnows Liechtenstein and the mighty Spain.